Navy Tomcat Ace dies in Takeoff Crash, Flight Controls Left Locked

The SIAI-Marchetti SM-1019B had barely left the runway when its nose pitched sharply upward.

The airplane climbed aggressively, reaching only about 80 feet above the ground before rolling approximately 90 degrees to the left. The nose dropped, and the aircraft descended into the ground.

The entire sequence lasted only seconds.

There was no evidence of an engine failure.

There was no evidence that the pilot's seat had moved.

There was no pre-existing flight-control malfunction.

The eventual explanation was far simpler—and far more sobering.

The airplane's flight-control lock had not been removed before takeoff.

The accident killed veteran aviator Dale “Snort” Snodgrass on July 24, 2021, at Lewiston-Nez Perce County Airport in Idaho.

An experienced pilot and an unusual airplane

Snodgrass was an extremely experienced aviator, and that fact makes the accident particularly instructive.

The airplane was a SIAI-Marchetti SM-1019B, a turboprop-powered aircraft based on the Italian SF.260 design lineage and modified for military-style operations.

On the morning of July 24, Snodgrass intended to fly from Lewiston to Hungry Ridge Ranch Airport near Grangeville, Idaho, where he owned a residence.

There was no time pressure.

According to his wife, there was no urgent reason for him to depart immediately. The NTSB also noted that he was reportedly meticulous about his preflight activities.

Yet something went wrong before the airplane began its takeoff roll.

The intersection takeoff

The aircraft was positioned for an intersection departure around midfield.

Airport security cameras captured the takeoff.

The airplane accelerated along the runway for roughly 400 feet before becoming airborne in what investigators described as a three-point departure configuration.

Almost immediately, the airplane pitched sharply upward.

It reached an attitude of approximately 45 degrees nose-up while climbing to only about 80 feet above ground.

The speed of the sequence is crucial.

Once airborne, the pilot had only seconds to understand why the airplane was refusing to respond normally.

What investigators expected to find

An aircraft that suddenly pitches violently after takeoff can lead investigators toward several possibilities.

A control-system failure.

A jammed elevator.

A displaced seat.

A trim malfunction.

A loss of engine power.

A center-of-gravity problem.

But the wreckage did not support those explanations.

The engine and propeller displayed damage signatures consistent with high engine power at impact.

The flight-control system showed no evidence of a pre-existing mechanical failure.

Investigators also found no evidence that the pilot's seat had moved.

The airplane's control system, however, contained something that would prove decisive.

A flight-control locking system was installed.

The system used a U-shaped locking tube mounted around the rudder-pedal assembly and a locking arm mounted to the pilot's control stick.

When installed, it immobilized the elevator and ailerons.

The rudder and tailwheel retained substantial movement.

That meant an airplane with the lock installed could still have some directional-control capability on the ground—but the pilot could not normally control pitch and roll in flight.

The physical evidence

The most compelling evidence came from the condition of the control lock itself.

The cabin floor where the lock should have been stowed was badly deformed during the crash.

If the lock had been properly stowed during takeoff, investigators expected it to have been trapped beneath the control stick during the impact. They also expected deformation of the retaining clip.

Instead, the control lock and retaining clip were essentially undamaged.

The lock was found raised from the floor.

The locking arm attached to the control stick showed no impact damage and had rotated approximately 90 degrees to the right of its normal position.

Those findings strongly indicated that the lock remained attached to the control stick when the airplane departed the runway.

Security-camera footage provided another important piece of evidence.

Investigators reviewed high-resolution video and could not discern normal elevator or aileron movement during the takeoff.

That was consistent with the controls being immobilized.

The missing control check

A basic pre-takeoff control check should reveal an engaged flight-control lock.

The pilot should physically move the elevator and ailerons and confirm that the controls respond freely.

That did not happen—or, at least, the evidence showed that the lock remained engaged when the aircraft became airborne.

The NTSB ultimately concluded that the pilot failed to remove the flight-control lock before departure.

The final report also noted that the pilot had limited experience in the accident airplane, which could have contributed to the omission. At the same time, investigators acknowledged that the reason the control check was not performed could not be determined.

That distinction is important.

Quite the opposite: people familiar with him described a thorough preflight routine.

But aviation accidents often expose the danger of assuming that experience makes basic errors impossible.

Why the airplane reacted so violently

With the elevator immobilized, the pilot had little ability to control pitch.

With the ailerons immobilized, he also lacked normal roll control.

The airplane was therefore capable of becoming airborne under power but not controllable in the conventional sense once it left the runway.

The initial nose-up attitude and subsequent left roll are consistent with an aircraft departing the ground without normal pitch-and-roll control.

The remaining rudder authority could not compensate for the loss of elevator and aileron control.

And the altitude available was almost nonexistent.

Once the airplane was airborne, the problem was no longer a checklist omission.

It had become an emergency with almost no time available to solve it.

Accident Facts

The NTSB docket contains airport-camera footage, a dedicated control-lock study, witness statements, airport diagrams and other investigative material.

The safety lesson

The accident is a powerful reminder that checklists are not merely administrative routines.

A pilot can have thousands of hours, extensive professional experience and an excellent reputation for preparation—and still miss one physical configuration item.

The control check exists because the consequences of a locked flight control are immediate and severe.

This is also why abnormal takeoff behavior should be treated as a configuration emergency rather than an intellectual puzzle. If the airplane suddenly behaves in a way that makes no aerodynamic sense, the pilot must consider the possibility that something fundamental has not been configured correctly.

In this case, the airplane itself provided the warning almost immediately.

But by then, there was no meaningful altitude in which to recover.

Sources

• Original ATC recording