Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / DCA87MA031

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DCA87MA031

1987-05-12 WEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania, United States Airport · AGC Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N100EP

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

EPPLIN JOHN A COZY MK 4

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A00526

Registrant of record

GANTT BRADLEY C

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE COPLT (DUAL STUDENT) WAS TO GET A PROF CHECK ON THE 1ST LEG OF THE FLT WITH A SIMULATED SINGLE ENG PWR LOSS ON TKOF.ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE TKOF WAS NORMAL UNTIL LIFT-OFF APRX 3200' DOWN THE RWY; BUT AFTER LIFT-OFF, THE ACFT CLBD ONLY ABOUT 50' & DIDN'T SEEM TO ACCELERATE. THEY RPRTD THE NOSE PITCHED UP & THE ACFT WENT IN A STEEP BANK ATTITUDE NR THE DEP END OF THE RWY. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT DSCNDD & CRASHED IN WOODED TERRAIN IN A RGT WING DOWN, NOSE HI ATTITUDE. A BY- STANDER TRIED TO GET IN THE ACFT TO RESCUE THE PLTS, BUT THE DOOR WAS JAMMED & HE WAS UNABLE TO BREAK THE CABIN WINDOWS.A FIRE ERUPTED & ENGULFED THE ACFT. DUE TO ROUGH TERRAIN, THERE WAS A DELAY IN GETTING FIRE FIGHTING EQUIPMENT TO THE ACDNT SITE. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURES WERE FND. THE GEAR, FLAPS & SPOILERS WERE FND IN THE RETRACTED PSN. FOR TKOF, THE FLAPS SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXTD TO THE 8 OR 20 DEG POSITION. THE STALL SPEEDS FOR 20 DEG, 8 DEG & NO FLAPS WERE 104.5, 109.0 & 119.5 KTS, RESPECTIVELY. THE CAPT WAS AN FAA DESIGNATED FLT EXAMINER & A CERTIFIED FLT INSTRUCTOR (CFI). Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_DCA87MA031.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 ↗