NTSB ERA21LA217 — 2021-05-15 · Brewton, Alabama, United States

Aircraft involved

N3396J Cessna 150 None

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering at low altitude, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and impact with the ground.

Factual narrative

The pilot was participating in a “flour bag drop” competition and reported that while he was flying about 50-100 ft above a closed runway, he “got too slow and stalled.” He attempted to recover; however, there was insufficient altitude, and the airplane impacted the runway nose first. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mounts and firewall. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

— Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Not attained/maintained
— Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2021_ERA21LA217.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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