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ERA13CA086

2012-12-13 · Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport MBT

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during takeoff, which resulted in a runway excursion.

Factual narrative

The student pilot stated that during the practice soft field takeoff, he pulled the yoke back and applied full power. The airplane veered left and skidded off the runway where the propeller struck a concrete culvert. The skid continued across the grass and the airplane came to rest in a drainage area. A post-accident examination conducted by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed substantial damage to the wings, firewall, and fuselage. The student pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation The student pilot stated that during the practice soft field takeoff, he pulled the yoke back and applied full power. The airplane veered left and skidded off the runway where the propeller struck a concrete culvert. The skid continued across the grass and the airplane came to rest in a drainage area. Postaccident examination revealed substantial damage to the wings, firewall, and fuselage. The student pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2012_ERA13CA086.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway excursion). All research papers