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> the crew rejected takeoff due to a hydraulic defect but veered left off the runway. The aircraft came to a stop on soft ground next to the Presidential Pavillion (about 2000 meters/6000 feet down the runway), the left wing briefly caught fire. All occupants evacuated via slides

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Thank you for this. The plane didn’t “crash” or fall out of the sky. It rejected takeoff and left the runway.

So, a car driving into a ditch, didn't crash, it just rejected the road? A crash is a crash.

A "crash" implies a collision with something. Per your example, a car can leave the road but when it collides with drainage ditch it becomes a crash

In this case there was NO COLLSION with another object and therefore no crash

question for a book I'm writing: how easy would planes be to mess up in such a way no issues appear until plane takes off?

Very. Examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Airlines_Flight_102

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_Flight_123

The last one was caused by a bad repair from a tail strike seven years earlier.

The harder part would be a way that isn’t traceable afterwards.

Read some NTSB documents about crashes especially ones where “maintenance” appears.

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