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WPR12LA074 · Czech Sportplanes SRO DYNAMIC WT9

6 Jan 2012 · Glendale, AZ, United States

Czech Sportplanes SRO DYNAMIC WT9 · Accident: loss of control on ground while taxiing

From Glendale Municipal Airport (KGEU) to Glendale Municipal Airport (KGEU)

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Event

NTSB case
WPR12LA074
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

Czech Sportplanes SRO DYNAMIC WT9

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
N247DY
Operator
William B. McKee · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Glendale Municipal Airport (KGEU), Glendale, AZTo Glendale Municipal Airport (KGEU), Glendale, AZ
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
Taxi · to runway
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

  • Personnel issues › Action/decision

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, he performed a brake check and used the brakes numerous times while taxiing to the run-up area; however, as he approached the run-up area, the brakes failed, and the airplane continued to roll forward. He decided to steer the airplane off the taxiway surface and not risk an excursion onto the active runway. The airplane veered off the paved surface onto unprepared desert terrain, and the airplane continued to accelerate. The pilot attempted to shut down the engine with the ignition switch, but was unable to. He said that normal engine shut down is accomplished using two magneto switches on the instrument panel and not the ignition switch. The airplane then struck a boundary fence.

Postaccident examination revealed that the left wheel brake assembly was damaged by impact forces consistent with the airplane’s collision with the fence. The examination of the brake system for fluid leaks and functionality did not disclose any evidence of a preexisting mechanical malfunction that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that, if the pilot had shut down the engine before the airplane departed the taxiway surface, he would have been able to stop in time to avoid colliding with the airport boundary fence.

Probable cause

The pilot did not shut down the engine upon recognizing a brake malfunction. Contributing to the accident was the airplane's brake malfunction for undetermined reasons.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR12LA074
Event ID
20120106X12700
Case number
WPR12LA074
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: 4ea1ad244f62d05dc62ba55e35330d7ce8c36a2367062e56025bc42f7ede2ee8; retrieved 2026-09-15T17:02:45.972Z.