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ERA19CA148

2019-04-08 · Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport LNS

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot's failure to maintain directional control during takeoff, which resulted in a runway excursion and impact with a runway marker.

Factual narrative

The student pilot was conducting solo touch-and-go landings and takeoffs. During the landing roll of the eighth touch-and-go landing, he retracted the flaps to 0° and applied full engine power for takeoff. The airplane began drifting "hard" to the left and he applied right rudder, however, the airplane departed the left side of the runway, impacted a runway marker, and came to rest in a nose down attitude." The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The student pilot was conducting solo touch-and-go landings and takeoffs. During the landing roll of the eighth touch-and-go landing, he retracted the flaps to 0° and applied full engine power for takeoff. The airplane began drifting "hard" to the left, and he applied right rudder; however, the airplane departed the left side of the runway, impacted a runway marker, and came to rest in a nose-down attitude. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall. The student reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions 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 Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot - C
  • C Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Sign/marker-Effect on operation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2019_ERA19CA148.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