WPR18LA037 · Columbia Aircraft MFG LC41 550FG
Columbia Aircraft MFG LC41 550FG · Accident: loss of control on ground while taxiing
From La Cholla Airpark (57AZ) to Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (KSBS)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR18LA037
- 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
Columbia Aircraft MFG LC41 550FG
- Aircraft type
- Columbia LC41
- 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
- N2526C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From La Cholla Airpark (57AZ), Tuscon, AZTo Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (KSBS), Steamboat Springs, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2006)
- 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 · from 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the engine surged during an attempted takeoff, and she aborted the takeoff. She let the engine idle for about 5 minutes and then attempted another takeoff. However, the engine surged again. The pilot applied the brakes and aborted the second takeoff. As the pilot was trying to determine the problem and was planning to taxi back to the hangar, the airplane started rolling across the runway and the pilot lost braking capability. The airplane rolled across and off the runway into a ditch. The brakes caught fire which resulted in substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. The pilot reported that the airplane was at its maximum gross weight at the time of the accident. The pilot operating handbook for the accident airplane stated that after heavy braking, especially when the airplane is near gross weight, the pilot should allow the brakes to cool for about 20 minutes before additional heavy braking, as the brakes may overheat. It is likely that due to insufficient time to allow the brakes to cool, during the second aborted takeoff sequence, the brakes overheated, which resulted in a brake fire and led to the pilot's loss of braking capability.
Probable cause
The inadequate cooling time between repeated heavy braking applications, which resulted in the brakes overheating and a subsequent brake fire during the aborted takeoff sequence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR18LA037
- Event ID
- 20171128X94938
- Case number
- WPR18LA037
- 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: c5224e0c0d4f4462b3ec76e6500984f606c77e10ffbb3a1a73bdb6c58abf1d61; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:02:45.108Z.