GAA17CA435 · Gilbert Thomas Jeffrey LANCAIR 235
Gilbert Thomas Jeffrey LANCAIR 235 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From North Texas Regional Airport Perrin Field (GYI) to North Texas Regional Airport Perrin Field (GYI)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA435
- 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
Gilbert Thomas Jeffrey LANCAIR 235
- Aircraft type
- Gilbert Thomas Jeffrey LANCAIR 235
- 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
- N91JG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Texas Regional Airport Perrin Field (GYI), Denison, TXTo North Texas Regional Airport Perrin Field (GYI), Denison, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 27 years (built 1990)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the experimental, amateur-built airplane reported that he was unfamiliar with the airplane and that, during a prepurchase flight, he was accompanied by an aircraft mechanic/pilot familiar with the airplane.
The mechanic, seated in the right seat, instructed him to anticipate adding right rudder when increasing power during takeoff. During takeoff, the pilot applied right rudder; however, he reported that, once full power was applied, the airplane continued to veer to the left. The pilot added that he and the mechanic verbally communicated that they "both were applying right rudder and simultaneous aileron."
The pilot then pulled the mixture control to shut off the engine; however, the airplane continued off the left side of the runway. The pilot heard a loud "pop," and the airplane then veered to the right, the landing gear collapsed, and the airplane came to rest off the right side of the runway.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and rudder.
The pilot reported that he believed a "mechanical" failure caused the airplane to not respond to inputs from the right rudder, right brake, and right aileron and that the left brake or bearing seized, causing enough friction to overcome the control inputs. The mechanic stated that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
According to the mechanic, the airplane was not equipped with rudder/brake pedals on the right side, and before the flight, the pilot had used the brakes effectively to taxi for takeoff. He further stated, "all brakes were in good shape, and everything was in good operational condition."
The automated weather observation system on the airport reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 190° at 7 knots. The pilot was departing on runway 17L.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff roll.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA435
- Event ID
- 20170724X41938
- Case number
- GAA17CA435
- 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: ac3af081dda80477cdb4ce5dd6408c3cabded17ac9c5f4b96d3e00f0a00eb64a; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:35:43.938Z.