- Date
- February 15, 2025, 14:30 UTC
- Place
- Culpeper, VA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Takeoff
- Aircraft
- N373AMDiamond Aircraft Ind DA20-C1
- Defining event
- Takeoff: Loss of control on ground
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250215002709A
- Case key
- 199792
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during the takeoff roll, resulting in a runway excursion.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
Following an uneventful flight and taxi back to the runway, the student pilot reported that when he applied takeoff power, the airplane began to veer to the left. He applied right rudder, but the control input was ineffective. He then reduced the power to idle and applied both brakes, but the airplane exited the left side of the runway and came to rest in a drainage ditch. The pilot was uninjured, and the airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and empennage. Postaccident examination by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the flight controls, braking system, or the nose wheel that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N373AM
- Reported as
- Diamond Aircraft Ind DA20-C1
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- C0379
- Built
- 2006
- Airframe hours
- 5,702.6
- Engine
- Continental Aerospace Technologies IO-240-b, 125 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Ka Holdings LLC
- Registered owner
- Ka Holdings LLC
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · January 7, 2025 · 56.9 hours before
- Departed
- FEF · Manassas, VA
- Destination
- CJR · Culpepper, VA
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- CJR · Culpeper Rgnl, runway 22, 5,000 × 100 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 21
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 37.7 total · 35.3 in this make and model · 0.7 as pilot in command · 3.9 in the last 90 days · 0 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 170° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 5 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 2,700 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 36 °F, dew point 32 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.18 inHg
- Observed at
- CJR
- METAR
- METAR KCJR 151935Z AUTO 17003KT 5SM UP OVC027 02/00 A3018 RMK AO2 P0003 T00220000
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on August 21, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 1.7 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.