Skip to content

CHI87DEE08

1987-04-18 · KANKAKEE, Illinois, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport IKK

N501RM has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (MD HELICOPTERS INC 369E, built 2009), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE PILOT TOOK OFF ON THE FIRST TEST FLIGHT IN HIS HOMEBUILT AIRCRAFT AND AFTER CLIMBING TO APPROXIMATELY 1000 FT. AGL, STALLED THE AIRCRAFT. THE AIRCRAFT THEN SUBSEQUENTLY ENTERED A SPIN AND COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. THERE WERE REPORTS OF THE AIRCRAFT'S ENGINE 'SPUTTERING'. INVESTIGATORS DETERMINED THAT THE PROPELLER WAS NOT SPINNING AT IMPACT. THE PILOT HAD REPORTED CARBURETION PROBLEMS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT, BUT THE ENGINE WAS TOO BADLY DAMAGED BY POST IMPACT FIRE TO ALLOW A DETERMINATION OF WHAT CAUSED A POWERLOSS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_CHI87DEE08.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers