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Atlas / NTSB / ATL90FA158

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL90FA158

1990-08-11 LOCUST GROVE, Georgia, United States Airport · GA04 Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N9871C

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

NORTH AMERICAN T-6G

Year of manufacture

1949 · 41 years old at event

Engine

P&W R1340 SERIES (600 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19590203

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S ADC7A3

Registrant of record

STEVENSON TAYLOR A

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL DURING MANEUVERING FLIGHT, ALLOWING THE AIRPLANE TO STALL WITHOUT SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE FOR RECOVERY.

Factual narrative

SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE ENTERED A STEEP, NOSE HIGH, LEFT TURN. ONE WITNESS STATED THAT HE (THE PILOT) 'HONKED IT UP' AND 'REALLY YANKED IT BACK'. WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS ABOUT 300 TO 400 FEET AGL, THE WINGS LEVELED, 'WAGGED', AND THE AIRPLANE THEN ROLLED INTO THE TERRAIN IN A STEEP, NOSE LOW ATTITUDE. REPORTEDLY, THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN TOPPED WITH FUEL PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. ALL WITNESSES STATED THAT THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING ALL THE WAY TO GROUND IMPACT. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT REVEAL EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_ATL90FA158.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 ↗