ERA20LA089 · Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT
Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: runway excursion during takeoff
From Summerland Key Cove Airport (FD51) to Pompano Beach Airpark (PMP)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA20LA089
- 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
Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N41VK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Summerland Key Cove Airport (FD51), Summerland Key, FLTo Pompano Beach Airpark (PMP), Pompano Beach, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1981)
- 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 · rejected 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
- Runway excursion
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he performed preflight inspection and run-up checks before takeoff, which included a check of the elevator flight control system with no discrepancies noted. During the takeoff roll, the pilot reported the airplane was "nosing down to the front." He twice adjusted the elevator trim toward the airplane nose-up direction then applied aft input on the control yoke to rotate at 85 knots but felt resistance and aborted the takeoff. The airplane exited the runway, and the right wing impacted trees. The airplane’s right wing was substantially damaged during the runway excursion. Shortly after the accident, the pilot reported to the airport manager that he could not get airborne because of "…the control lock or something." The airport manager reported seeing the flight control gust lock on the right wing (and that it was not stored in a container behind the airplane’s rear seats as reported by the pilot). Postaccident examination of the elevator primary flight control system revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction that would have precluded normal operation. Additionally, comparison of a postaccident photograph of the elevator position with the gust lock installed with the elevator position observed in a video of the accident takeoff roll indicated similar elevator positions: trailing edge down (airplane nose down), which was consistent with the pilot reported nose-down condition during the takeoff roll. Given this information, it is likely that the pilot had not removed the gust lock prior to initiating the takeoff, which resulted in his inability to rotate the airplane.
A postaccident photograph of the gust lock also showed that it was missing a portion designed to cover the engine controls and prevent engine start with the lock installed. Although the airframe manufacturer had previously published a service bulletin pertaining to the gust lock, it was for a different reason and did not require an inspection to make sure a proper and complete device was available. Had the gust control lock been complete, it would have blocked the engine controls and provided the intended warning.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to remove the flight control gust lock before takeoff, which resulted in an inability to rotate, aborted takeoff, and subsequent runway overrun. Contributing to the accident was a missing piece of the flight control gust lock, which did not give the pilot the intended warning that the gust lock was engaged.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA20LA089
- Event ID
- 20200126X35126
- Case number
- ERA20LA089
- 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: 364f3e26aeab01c737fcdf7d9ef68c4e33f9a7b955fe4eff1a6ff5d4052c3f9f; retrieved 2026-09-16T10:59:48.132Z.