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Atlas / NTSB / BFO87LA036

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event BFO87LA036

1987-05-12 CHESTERTOWN, Maryland, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N18880

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

AERONCA LC

Engine

WARNER SCA JR SERIES (90 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19720830

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A161ED

Registrant of record

MACVEIGH CRAIG A

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE PILOT, UNFAMILIAR WITH THE AIRPORT, INTENDED TO PERFORM A TRIAL TAKEOFF RUN TO DETERMINE HOW THE AIRCRAFT ACCELERATED ON THE GRASS RUNWAY. DURING THE TRIAL RUN WHEN THE AIRCRAFT WAS ABOUT HALF WAY DOWN THE RUNWAY, THE PILOT FELT THE AIRCRAFT WAS READY TO FLY AND DECIDED TO PROCEED WITH THE TAKEOFF. LIFT-OFF AT STALL SPEED OCCURRED ABOUT 3/4 DOWN THE RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT WOULD NOT CLIMB OR ACCELERATE OUT OF GROUND EFFECT AND STRUCK A TREE PAST THE RUNWAY END. THE AIRCRAFT WAS AT FULL POWER, THE LANDING GEAR DOWN AND FLAPS DOWN 15 DEGREES WHEN THE COLLISION OCCURRED. THE PILOT REALIZED, AFTER THE ACCIDENT, THAT HE ATTEMPTED THE TAKEOFF DOWNWIND. THE PILOT STATED HE ATTEMPTED THE TAKEOFF WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF AN APPROACHING THUNDERSTORM. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_BFO87LA036.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, thunderstorm). 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 ↗