NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA13CA338
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's loss of control during an aborted takeoff as a result of his failure to properly configure the elevator trim prior to flight.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that, after completing a preflight inspection of the airplane and an engine run up, he taxied the airplane for departure. As the airplane rotated off the runway, the pilot noted that the control yoke felt "heavy." Approximately 25 feet above the ground, the pilot elected to abort the takeoff, and pitched the airplane's nose down. The airplane contacted the runway, bounced, and became airborne again. As the airplane touched down a second time in a nose-down attitude, the propeller struck the runway and the nose landing gear collapsed. The airplane skidded off the right side of the runway and came to rest inverted, resulting in substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer, right wing, and engine firewall. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the elevator trim wheel was set approximately halfway between the neutral trim and full nose-down trim positions. The pilot reported to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that, after completing a preflight inspection of the airplane and an engine run up, he taxied the airplane for departure. As the airplane rotated off the runway, the pilot noted that the control yoke felt "heavy." Approximately 25 feet above the ground, the pilot elected to abort the takeoff, and pitched the airplane's nose down. The airplane contacted the runway, bounced, and became airborne again. As the airplane touched down a second time in a nose-down attitude, the propeller struck the runway and the nose landing gear collapsed. The airplane skidded off the right side of the runway and came to rest inverted, resulting in substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer, right wing, and engine firewall. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the elevator trim wheel was set to the nose-down position, which accounted for the "heavy" feeling of the flight controls the pilot experienced during the takeoff. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Not attained/maintained - C
- C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Forgotten action/omission-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Flight control system-Elevator control system-Related operating info - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2013_ERA13CA338.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
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