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Atlas / NTSB / CHI88FA188

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI88FA188

1988-08-03 FLUSHING, Michigan, United States Airport · 3DA Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N2956Z

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BELLANCA 7ECA

Year of manufacture

1978 · 10 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-235 SERIES (115 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19780405

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A30B4F

Registrant of record

AM FLITE INC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

PILOT'S PHYSICAL INCAPACITATION DUE TO A CORONARY SEIZURE, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL, AND A STALL/SPIN INTO THE GROUND.

Factual narrative

SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, AS THE AIRPLANE WAS CLIMBING THRU ABOUT 100 TO 200 FT ABOVE THE GROUND, IT WAS OBSERVED TO PITCH UP, THEN BANK RIGHT & NOSED DOWN IN WHAT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE A 3/4 TURN SPIN BEFORE IMPACTING THE GROUND. NO PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE OF THE AIRCRAFT STRUCTURE OR ENGINE WAS FOUND. A PATHOLOGICAL EXAM OF THE PILOT REVEALED EXTENSIVE CHEST INJURIES AND AN ACUTE OCCLUSION OF THE LEFT ANTERIOR DESCENDING CORONARY ARTERY. THE CORONER BELIEVED THE PILOT SUFFERED A CORONARY SEIZURE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1988_CHI88FA188.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 ↗