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Atlas / NTSB / CHI04LA207

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI04LA207

2004-08-02 WESTFIELD, Indiana, United States Airport · I72 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N197BR

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

OSTENDORF ROBERT LEE KITFOX SERIES 5

Year of manufacture

1997 · 7 years old at event

Engine

ROTAX 912UL SERIES (80 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20111026

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A18255

Registrant of record

SLEDGE DAVID M

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

the failure of the pilot to maintain adequate airspeed resulting in a stall.

Factual narrative

On August 2, 2004 at 1935 central standard time, an amateur-built Skystar Kitfox Series 5 airplane, N197BR, piloted by a private pilot, was substantially damaged during landing on runway 18 at the Westfield Airport, Westfield, Indiana. The flight was being conducted under 14 CFR Part 91 without a flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time. The pilot, the only occupant, was not injured. The flight departed Westfield Airport for a local flight about five minutes before the accident. The pilot reported the weather was good with ten miles visibility and winds from the southwest at 2 knots. The pilot was conducting short field landing practice and bounced twice and lost airspeed. The aircraft stalled to the right and the right wing struck the ground. The pilot's safety recommendations were "increased airspeed on final" The aircraft made two bounced landings and the right wing stalled and struck the runway. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2004_CHI04LA207.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 ↗