On June 17th, 2024, at 19:49 EDT, a Lockheed 12A Electra Junior was substantially damaged after striking a tree at a relatively low speed after landing at Seven Lakes Airport (62GA) in Jackson, Georgia. A bystander filmed the landing. After the tailwheel touched down, the aircraft began a relatively slow turn to the left, departing the runway into forested bushes. A tree trunk penetrated several feet into the cockpit. All three occupants were injured and transported to local hospitals via MedEvac.
Two things make this mishap unusual. The first is the aircraft. The Lockheed 12A Electra Junior is a pre-World War II radial twin that is the predecessor of modern corporate aviation for all intents and purposes. Its bigger brother, the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, was built in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglass DC-2. It was a transitional period for commercial aviation, nestled between the Wild West era of airmail and the introduction to the masses brought about by the DC-3 (by 1939, the DC-3 made up ninety percent of airline ticket sales). Though the Model 10 had a short lifespan as a passenger hauler, it achieved fame as the first aircraft to accomplish a roundtrip crossing of the Atlantic (1937). Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan also selected it for their doomed round-the-world attempt in July of the same year.
The Model 12A Electra Junior is a scaled-down Model 10 with the same 450 HP Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior radial engine. With a top speed of 225 mph, it was the fastest transport aircraft of the time. The progression of speed in the early era of aviation was so fierce that the L12A could outrun more than a few Air Corps fighter planes when it entered production. The Electra Junior had been developed to compete in a U.S. Bureau of Commerce competition for a “feeder airliner.” Early regulators recognized the need for light aircraft to connect passengers from smaller cities to larger hubs. As a feeder airliner, the L12A was a failure. It was ultimately too small for the comfort of the general public and not efficient enough to turn a buck. But it was just right for corporate travel (it also served as a spy plane for French and British intelligence agencies during World War II).
The total number of Electra Juniors built was just over 100, with less than a dozen still flying today. The aircraft involved in the crash at Seven Lakes had been pristinely restored. The model was used as a stand-in for Amelia’s Lockheed 10 in the movie Earhart. The titular actress Hillary Swank had signed the cabin door. Two days before the crash at Seven Lakes Airport, another L12A had crashed during initial climb following takeoff from Chino Airport (KCNO) in California. Both occupants were killed in the impact. The purpose of the Chino flight had been to prepare the aircraft for a three-plane flyover celebrating Father’s Day. That particular aircraft was also a museum piece (this time literally), owned and operated by Yanks Air Museum.
If you do the math, it took just two days to wipe out 20% of the worldwide Lockheed 12A fleet.
A Connection Between the Two
All three occupants survived the Seven Lakes accident with varying degrees of injury. Sitting in front were long-time friends Glenn Hancock and Dan Gryder. Glenn owns the accident aircraft. Dan is a well-known aviation personality on YouTube. His channel, Probable Cause, has amassed nearly 7 million views. His videos have been watched 2.1 million times. The Chino crash was fresh on Dan and Glenn’s minds; the preliminary report noted witness testimony indicating the flaps had been in the fully extended position during the taxi. A person on the ground filmed the takeoff, which seemed to confirm that the flaps had remained extended during initial climb. Not long after liftoff, the aircraft entered an apparent stall-spin and crashed.
Two onboard cameras were used to film Glenn’s takeoff from Seven Lakes. The footage depicted both pilots as inordinately focused on the flap setting before departure. Following takeoff was an inflight demonstration of the handling characteristics of the Electra Junior in a climb with the flaps fully extended. Not long after this, the L12A returned for landing at Seven Lakes. Of the two cameras onboard, one was confiscated by the NTSB. The second camera, which Dan handled (and published on his channel soon after being discharged from the hospital), represents the only footage from inside the aircraft that has been released to the public.
In a phone conversation a month after the accident, Dan stated, “The purpose [of the flight] was because [Glenn]…doesn’t get a chance to fly much, so I kind of keep an eye on him…He was telling me that he was going to take the Lockheed out to Texas, and I said it’s been a few months since you flew that thing…The purpose of the flight was just two friends flying together…It was not instruction…I [wanted] to keep an eye on him.” When asked about the purpose of filming, Dan replied: “Well, yes, in conjunction with the Chino accident, there had been a lot of speculation on whether the airplane would climb with full flaps or not. And it certainly will, even in a reduced power setting…I showed we went through the checklist. Everything’s good.”
Dan’s video was captured immediately after the aircraft had lined up on the grass runway for departure. Both pilots were focused on verifying that the flap selector was in the retracted position (a round push-pull knob on the L12A, which is the identical shape of the landing gear selector). They also verified that the flap gauge—partially hidden by the throttle quadrant—indicated zero. Conspicuously, the tailwheel lock handle was in the unlocked position.
Deferred Checklist Items
The Electra Junior was built by engineers who had likely never heard of the term “human factors.” A glaring example is the nearly identical shape and actuation of the landing gear selector and flap handle. Indeed, in the Lockheed manual (and the associated Army Air Corp correlate), pilots are warned against accidentally retracting the landing gear on the ground. Even more relevant, standardized manufacturer checklists were not a part of aircraft certification in the ‘30s. There is no such thing as an official Electra Junior checklist. Each operator is on their own to figure out a suitable procedure. It is the same for maintenance. There are no official work cards or task sheets to guide mechanics. A modern BMW has a thousand pages of guidance for common maintenance items. The poor A&P fixing a leaking gear strut on an L12A has only his wit.
Of the videos that Glenn has published on YouTube, several depict the operation of the Lockheed. On these flights, he verbalizes the before-takeoff checklist, confirming mixture, props and fuel pumps before entering the runway. The final item is ‘tailwheel to go.’ Before-takeoff checklists are used to ensure appropriate takeoff configuration before departure. Minimizing distractions while on an active runway is a critical component of flight safety. Deferring checklist items is discouraged since a deferred item can easily become a forgotten one. Yet, in the case of the tailwheel lock, it is necessary. The locks are designed to increase directional stability on the ground during takeoff, landing and taxiing straight ahead. They were developed in response to the ubiquitous taildragger phenomena of the ground loop. Due to the center of gravity being behind the main gear, once a taildragger begins to rotate, the leverage of its mass makes the rotation difficult to stop. By increasing stability, tailwheel locks reduce the likelihood of a ground loop but also decrease maneuverability. By design, it is difficult to turn with a locked tailwheel. L12A manuals specifically state that the tailwheel lock (when installed) should be engaged for all takeoffs and landings.
It takes only a small distraction to forget a deferred item on a before-takeoff checklist. The simple act of being on camera was one such distraction. Fixation on the status of the flaps was another. Aggravating this, a failure to lock the tailwheel does not, in and of itself, represent an existential risk. Indeed, the tailwheel lock on the Electra Junior is an optional piece of equipment. Yet it was clear from previous videos posted by Glenn that his habit was to lock the tailwheel before takeoff and unlock it after slowing to taxi speed following landing. The need to defer locking the tailwheel until aligned with the runway set him up for error. Filming unassociated footage was the fuse. If you were to judge the slipup by the outcome—a mangled aircraft with three in intensive care—you would be at risk of judging the pilots
too harshly.
That is not all there is to it. There was that leaking right strut. The Lockheed had not flown since a mechanic had fixed it. Glenn filmed the procedure and posted it to YouTube. In the video, he discussed two options for unloading the strut for the procedure. One of them involved disconnecting the right brake line. The system utilized a flexible hose connected to a rigid line to supply hydraulic pressure to the right brake. Following the crash, the NTSB discovered that the connector was only finger-tight. They also found brake fluid on the right gear assembly.
Per Dan: “During taxi out, we had good brakes, and I helped [Glenn] hold the brakes during the run-up…it takes a lot of leg pressure to hold that thing…so I had my toes up on top of both pedals, and they were both equally rock hard… After gear retraction, something changed. We would not have gone flying if there was any kind of anomaly in the brake.”
Distractions on the Flight Deck
Filming is a distraction. So is being filmed. Distractions increase the risk of error. Filming during flight can be meaningless. Chasing after a “like” on social media is a dumb way to ding an airplane. It is an empty tragedy when it leads to a fatality. Yet what about filming in the interest of safety? The FAA routinely issues waivers to the airlines to film approaches into complex airports so that pilots can review the operation before hauling 200-paying passengers along. A YouTuber who posts videos about aviation safety falls somewhere on the list. Preserving in-flight milestones has value as well. We have all snapped a pic of a striking view enroute.
Aviation is not about avoiding risks. We would never fly if it were. It is about recognizing and mitigating them. Filming is a risk. It is a distraction. It narrows your field of view. In the case of Glenn and Dan, it is hard to say how critical the unlocked tailwheel was. The external video depicts an unaggressive turn to the left at a relatively slow speed. The likely cause was depressurization of the right brake system, resulting in brake asymmetry. This induced a left-turning tendency that a locked tailwheel would have resisted. It is possible that the whole bloody mess would have been avoided had it not been seemingly forgotten. Whatever the case, it provides an opportunity to focus on managing distractions and maintaining an awareness of risks. Mitigation can be highly effective in establishing boundaries for use while under fire. Non-standard risks deserve particular attention. Whether it is filming a flight or falling snow, it is important to acknowledge the risk and articulate an appropriate response to maximize the odds of a positive outcome. Avoiding a crumpled wreck is a good start. We have yet to find a better way to dodge accidents than adherence to established operating principles. Sometimes, it is the little things that save us.
