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Atlas / NTSB / ERA13CA324

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA13CA324

2013-07-17 Woodruff, South Carolina, United States Airport · SC00 Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N5815V

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BOEING B75N1

Year of manufacture

1941 · 72 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING R680 (215 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19811014

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A77CBA

Registrant of record

DEBS RAYMOND E

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s decision to initiate a stall maneuver at a low altitude, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent and inadvertent collision with trees and terrain.

Factual narrative

After making a low pass over the airport, the pilot of the vintage aerobatic biplane initiated a “stall turn” in order to reverse direction. During the climb portion of the maneuver, the airplane “did not achieve the required altitude for a safe recovery due to the extra weight of [the] passenger.” During the descent and attempted recovery from the maneuver, the right wing impacted a tree and the airplane subsequently impacted the ground, and came to rest inverted. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the upper and lower wings, fuselage, and vertical stabilizer. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. After making a low pass over the airport, the pilot of the vintage aerobatic biplane initiated a “stall turn” in order to reverse direction. During the climb portion of the maneuver, the airplane “did not achieve the required altitude for a safe recovery due to the extra weight of [the] passenger.” During the descent and attempted recovery from the maneuver, the right wing impacted a tree and the airplane subsequently impacted the ground, and came to rest inverted. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the upper and lower wings, fuselage, and vertical stabilizer. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Incorrect use/operation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2013_ERA13CA324.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 ↗