MIA08LA089 · Dayon Lancair Legacy
Dayon Lancair Legacy · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL) to Savannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08LA089
- 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
- 1 · 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
Dayon Lancair Legacy
- Aircraft type
- Dayon LANCAIR LEGACY
- 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
- N1177M
- Operator
- Gerard Stewart Schkolnik
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL), Lakeland, FLTo Savannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV), Savannah, GA
- 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
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe 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 in flight
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to witnesses, the pilot was observed having difficulty closing the canopy on the airplane prior to takeoff. During the takeoff climb, a witness said he saw the cockpit canopy moving and believed the pilot was pushing it up and down about 6 to 12 inches. Another witness stated that shortly after takeoff, the engine lost power and the airplane continued straight and level. Another witness stated that she saw a plastic bag float down from the sky shortly after the airplane passed over her location. The bag contained several of the airplane's documents inside of it. The airplane then nosed down about 40 degrees and the left wing dropped as the airplane stalled and collided with the ground. A postcrash fire ensued which consumed part of the engine and the majority of the airframe, including the canopy latching system. Examination of the available wreckage did not reveal any evidence of preimpact failures or malfunctions.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's distraction with the canopy during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08LA089
- Event ID
- 20080417X00505
- Case number
- MIA08LA089
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 51dc815a8559b8e8897f636eedca0c3eb341411c15b55bdc7d67cf9a47fd0f42; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:02:23.511Z.