ERA26LA237 · Sinclair Pete LANCAIR ES
Sinclair Pete LANCAIR ES · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Ellington Airport (LUG)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA26LA237
- 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
Sinclair Pete LANCAIR ES
- Aircraft type
- Sinclair Pete LANCAIR ES
- 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
- N398S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From not recordedTo Ellington Airport (LUG), Ellington, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2010)
- 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 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 after performing an engine run-up with no anomalies noted, he taxied the airplane onto the runway and turned left to align with the runway centerline. He increased engine power and began the takeoff roll, but the airplane suddenly pulled left. He attempted to correct with full right rudder and brake pedal input; however, the airplane departed the left side of the runway, traveled on grass, and struck a visual approach slope indicator (VASI) light, before coming to rest upright. Following the accident, the pilot stated that the left main landing gear tire had failed and was deflated, but did not otherwise report that there were any other preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Postaccident Examination of the wreckage revealed that the airplane’s left wing sustained substantial damage during the accident. The left main landing gear’s brake operated normally, the associated wheel fairing was damaged, and the tire was flat. Skid marks in the grass were present along the airplane’s path of travel through the grass beyond the concrete pad, but not before, consistent with the tire going flat after collision with the pad and not before. Additionally, prior to the concrete pad of the VASI light, all three landing gear tire impressions were present in the grass, with the nose landing gear impression closer to the right landing gear impression, consistent with a right yaw or crab during the runway excursion.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during takeoff roll, which resulted in a runway excursion and collision with an approach lighting system.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA26LA237
- Event ID
- 20260611203165
- Case number
- ERA26LA237
- 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: baaf378b18c5dd583af0df459400f9bbecb4e4459db69f1f116117f289fba0ca; retrieved 2026-09-17T05:10:26.466Z.