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Atlas / NTSB / ATL88LA166

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL88LA166

1988-05-06 GULF SHORES, Alabama, United States Airport · AL15 Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

A WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE ENCOUNTERED A 'DOWNDRAFT' WHILE ATTEMPTING TO PICK UP A BANNER. THE MAIN LDG GEAR CAUGHT THE BANNER PICK-UP LINE AND CARRIED THE BANNER ALOFT. THE WITNESS RADIOED THE PLT TO ADVISE HIM OF THE SITUATION, BUT RECEIVED NO RESPONSE. THE AIRPLANE CLIMBED TO ABOUT 200 FT AGL WHILE CONTINUING TO HEAD NORTH INTO THE WIND, THEN BEGAN TO TURN DOWNWIND TO THE RIGHT. THE AIRPLANE NOSE DROPPED AS THE TURN WAS COMPLETED AND THE AIRPLANE ENTERED A SPIN TO THE RIGHT. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY IMPACTED THE TERRAIN IN A NOSE-DOWN ATTITUDE. THE WITNESS ESTIMATED THAT THE WIND WAS GUSTING UP TO 25 KNOTS FROM THE NORTH AT THE TIME. THE PLT WAS REPORTEDLY NOT WEARING HIS SEAT BELT, AND NO SHOULDER HARNESS WAS INSTALLED IN THE AIRPLANE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1988_ATL88LA166.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗