CEN26LA017 · Rans S20
Rans S20 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to West Desert Airpark (UT9)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN26LA017
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Rans S20
- Aircraft type
- Rans S20
- 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
- N319WD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo West Desert Airpark (UT9), Fairfield, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 3 years (built 2022)
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while taking off from runway 17, the airplane immediately yawed right as soon as the tail came up. The pilot attempted to correct with opposite rudder; however, the airplane drifted to the left and exited the left side of the runway. During the runway excursion, the right landing gear struck a berm. The airplane’s right wing impacted the ground, and the airplane came to rest upright. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and lift strut. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported the winds were from 260° at 16 knots and gusting to 24 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff with a right crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN26LA017
- Event ID
- 20251014201839
- Case number
- CEN26LA017
- 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, coordinates, cause areas. 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: 039d88c7ff8660f4c2c1f772035a4b1f8c867bc5bae0e2c041568b5bb7307fb6; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:27:37.200Z.