GAA15CA059
2015-05-01 · PEARLAND, Texas, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport LVJ
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff roll, which resulted in a runway excursion.
Factual narrative
The pilot stated that during the takeoff roll, the tail of the airplane began to lift, and an increasing amount of right rudder was required to maintain directional control and he believed that the airplane was at the beginning stages of a ground loop. The pilot reported that he applied full right rudder with a "stab" of right brake, the airplane stopped going to the left, and the right main wheel "snagged" the edge of a ditch and spun the airplane to the right, which resulted in substantial damage to the right aileron and wing. The pilot reported no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot stated that during the takeoff roll, the tail of the airplane began to lift, and an increasing amount of right rudder was required to maintain directional control and he believed that the airplane was at the beginning stages of a ground loop. The pilot reported that he applied full right rudder with a "stab" of right brake, the airplane stopped going to the left, and the right main wheel "snagged" the edge of a ditch and spun the airplane to the right, which resulted in substantial damage to the right aileron and wing. The pilot reported no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine 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-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Terrain-Sloped/uneven-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2015_GAA15CA059.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway excursion). All research papers
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article Runway Excursion — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary runway excursion review — RE-OE (overruns) + RE-LO (lateral). Risk drivers: long landing, high approach speed, contaminated surface, tailwind, mis-set autobrakes.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2019 · Accident report Embraer ERJ 175 Runway Excursion at Charlotte Douglas
Republic Airline ERJ-175 runway excursion CLT, January 2018. Examines a low-energy runway excursion involving misuse of autobrakes + thrust reverser response after a high-crosswind landing on a contam…
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Presentation Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Conference Paper Uncovering Resilient Behavior in the Aviation Safety Reporting System Using Large Language Models
Resiliency is present in everyday life, both in system design and exhibited by the operators that function within these systems.
- Flight Safety Foundation 2024 · FSF / AeroSafety World Runway Safety Initiative Final Report (RSI)
Foundation Runway Safety Initiative final report — comprehensive analysis of runway excursion + incursion risk drivers worldwide.
- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article Towards online prediction of safety-critical landing metrics in aviation using supervised machine learning
Abstract In recent years, due to the increased availability of data and improvements in computing power, application of machine learning techniques to various aviation safety problems for identifying,…