ERA10CA329 · North American SNJ-4
Training Services North American SNJ-4 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Suffolk Executive Airport (SFQ) to Suffolk Executive Airport (SFQ)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's operator. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10CA329
- 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-4
- Aircraft type
- North American SNJ-4
- 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
- N43NA
- Operator
- Training Services Inc Dba Narrative disagrees
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Suffolk Executive Airport (SFQ), Suffolk, VATo Suffolk Executive Airport (SFQ), Suffolk, VA
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to statements from the certificated flight instructor (CFI) and the certificated airline transport pilot (ATP), the ATP was seated in the front seat receiving dual instruction to "re-qualify" in the tailwheel-equipped airplane. Previously that day, the front-seat pilot had performed two uneventful takeoffs and landings. The accident flight departed runway 25, with winds estimated to be from 270 degrees to 290 degrees at 5 to 8 mph, and remained in the traffic pattern. While on the downwind leg abeam the runway, the landing gear were extended and the flaps were extended to 20 degrees. The front-seat pilot turned the airplane from base leg to final, and with full flaps extended after crossing the threshold, reduced power and attained a three-point landing attitude. The landing was "smooth and on-centerline," but at 50 knots, the front seat pilot felt a "bump and shimmy," while the CFI felt a "slight bump, much like a skip, followed immediately by the 'feeling' of a very slight yaw of the tail to the left." The CFI took control of the airplane and applied full left rudder and brake, but the airplane did not respond. The airplane departed the right side of the runway and the left wing contacted the ground, resulting in substantial damage to it. Postaccident inspection and operational testing of the tailwheel lock and unlock assembly revealed no mechanical anomalies. No elongation of the hole for the locking or unlocking was noted, and visual inspection of the pin revealed no deformation. The cable and pulley system for the lock and unlock was found to operate normally. Additional inspection of the airplane, its brake system, and tailwheel assembly by a mechanic with a reported 30 years' experience with the airplane also revealed no preexisting mechanical issues.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10CA329
- Event ID
- 20100624X93605
- Case number
- ERA10CA329
- 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. 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: 03ffb06adf694c75251c8d2fc3fd698107e69fe668fd3a14294f2b8ef39c35d0; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:30:05.448Z.