DEN08CA154 · North American SNJ-5
North American SNJ-5 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Lake County Airport (LXV) to Lake County Airport (LXV)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN08CA154
- 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
North American SNJ-5
- Aircraft type
- North American SNJ-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
- N9813C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake County Airport (LXV), Leadville, COTo Lake County Airport (LXV), Leadville, CO
- 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
- 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 on ground
- 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
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 the pilot, the preflight inspection was performed and an engine run-up was "completely successful" on the supercharged engine. He advanced the throttle to "full power," noted 2,050 rpm and 20 inches (expecting 2,200 rpm and 32 inches) and released the brakes for the ground roll. After an 800-foot ground roll, the pilot noted 55 miles per hour, 2,100 rpm, and 28 inches. The airplane drifted to the right and the pilot attempted to correct with the application of left rudder and aileron control. The airplane became airborne and the left wing contacted the ground. The airplane settled back to the ground and headed towards the left side of the runway, at which time the pilot elected to abort the takeoff. The airplane became airborne one additional time, departed the runway environment to the left, and impacted several trees, resulting in substantial damage. Density altitude at the time of the accident was estimated to be 11,570 feet. An examination of the airplane systems revealed no anomalies.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN08CA154
- Event ID
- 20081003X65755
- Case number
- DEN08CA154
- 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: 4369fb9e6319a874e7058b28f6baad977f29e4959831773a5b317ffa06169dfd; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:22:12.403Z.