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Atlas / NTSB / CEN25LA103

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN25LA103

2025-02-24 Azle, Texas, United States Airport · 2TE2 Minor 1 aircraft Status: In work

Registry · N78WT

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

MAUGHAN WESLEY J STARDUSTER II

Year of manufacture

1980 · 45 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING HIO-360 SER (205 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19800929

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AA9033

Registrant of record

COLE THOMAS ED

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

On February 24, 2025, at 1430 central standard time, a Starduster II airplane, N78WT, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Azle, Texas. The private pilot and a passenger received minor injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. The pilot had flown the airplane earlier in the day and planned on flying the airplane in the airport traffic pattern at the time of the accident. He said the takeoff was normal and during the downwind to base leg turn for runway 15, the airplane became sluggish and was sinking. He said the left wing dropped severely, which he attributed to a tip stall. He corrected for the wing drop by applying right aileron and right rudder inputs. The left wing rose and then dropped again. He said the airplane was not equipped with a stall warning system. He advanced the engine throttle but did not feel a response. He said that he was not looking at the engine tachometer because he was looking at the airport. The airplane descended and impacted terrain. A postcrash fire ensued, which destroyed the airplane. The airplane was retained for further examination. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2025_CEN25LA103.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 ↗