Lateral controls refer to any controls which manipulate direction, whether of starships, or of individual starship components such as ray shields on ships such as the Millennium Falcon. The Falcon's starboard deflector shield's lateral controls were lost when the freighter was attacked by TIE fighters while fleeing the first Death Star. Princess Leia Organa's Y-wing lost lateral controls during a malfunction over Mimban in 2 ABY, forcing her to crash land on that planet.