MIA05CA064 · Grumman American AA-5A
Grumman American AA-5A · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Ockalawaha, FL to Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (OCF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA05CA064
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Grumman American AA-5A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman American AA-5
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N9572U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ockalawaha, FLTo Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (OCF), Ocala, FL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff · roll/run
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control on ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot passenger › Rudder, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private-rated pilot stated he and his pilot-rated passenger flew to Jim Taylor Field to have an avionics upgrade installed. After the installation was complete he flew in the traffic pattern, completing several touch-and-go landings. The pilot-rated passenger's biennial flight review was coming due and wanted to allow him to get some practice during this flight. After touching down on runway 36 the pilot gave control of the airplane to the passenger during the landing roll of the planned go around. When the pilot passenger took control, the airplane began to veer off to the left of the centerline and continued left until it departed the runway and impacted a runway remaining sign. The pilot passenger stated he took control of the airplane during the landing roll with a ground speed of approximately 50 miles per hour. He then added engine power for takeoff and the airplane started to veer to the left. He compensated by added right rudder to correct but the airplane continued to the left. He applied right full rudder yet the airplane exited the runway at approximately 45 degrees from the edge of the runway. The airplane struck the 5,000-foot runway remaining sign before coming to rest in the grass. After the impact, he realized that during the transition of control he placed both feet on the left rudder pedal believing he had his right foot on the right rudder pedal. He and the pilot inspected the airplane and found damage to the engine cowling on the left side, left wing leading edge, left main landing gear and wheel pant, left horizontal stabilizer, and elevator balance faring. The aircraft mechanic who conducted the postaccident inspection of the airplane, stated to the NTSB that he found no mechanical malfunctions or rigging errors that would have prevented the rudder pedals from functioning as designed prior to the accident. He noted that it would be difficult to place both feet on the left rudder pedal as the pilot passenger stated he did.
Probable cause
The pilot-rated passengers improper use of the rudder control and his failure to maintain directional control resulting in a loss of control on the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA05CA064
- Event ID
- 20050401X00393
- Case number
- MIA05CA064
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a6d2920cf5879469f51fa93fca5b1b73b786bfe73e08e60e510e1c4b67d44377; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:18:48.585Z.