GAA19CA083 · Smith AEROSTAR601 UNDESIGNAT
P&M Truck Sale Smith AEROSTAR601 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Douglas Municipal Gene Chambers Airport (DQH) to Rock Hill - York County Airport (UZA)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA083
- 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
Smith AEROSTAR601 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Smith AEROSTAR601
- 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
- N909CA
- Operator
- P&M Truck Sale
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Douglas Municipal Gene Chambers Airport (DQH), Douglas, GATo Rock Hill - York County Airport (UZA), Rock Hill, SC
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1976)
- 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
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Physical
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was flying the airplane while wearing an "air cast boot." During landing, the airplane decelerated, and he asked the passenger to move his feet up to the brake pedals and apply the brakes. He added that the passenger applied "insufficient differential brake application," and the airplane veered left. The passenger applied right brake and rudder to correct, but the airplane then veered right, exited the runway, and impacted a ditch.
The pilot reported that he was wearing the boot due to a previous injury. He added that he had the ability to fully manipulate both rudder controls, but the boot prevented him from being able to fully apply brake pressure.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to fly with an air cast boot on his foot, which led him to rely on the passenger to apply brakes and rudder, which was performed improperly and led to a loss of directional control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA083
- Event ID
- 20181129X43605
- Case number
- GAA19CA083
- 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: 31b2ff66434936378305243c3d246749220ecb87063f536b161a1f87b3671a6b; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:27:53.799Z.