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Atlas / NTSB / ERA26LA008

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA26LA008

2025-10-07 East Rockingham, North Carolina, United States Airport · RCZ None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N63BC

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CHAMPION 7ECA

Year of manufacture

1968 · 57 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-235 SERIES (115 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19680926

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A83B7F

Registrant of record

VALLEORTIZ HECTOR J

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during initial climb, resulting in an aerodynamic stall and impact with terrain.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that he was attempting a normal landing with a left crosswind. About 200 ft into the landing roll, the right wing began to lift, and he overcorrected with left rudder input in an attempt to level the airplane. Fearing a ground loop, the pilot subsequently rejected the landing. During the initial climb, as the pilot attempted to clear trees at the end of the runway, the airplane experienced an aerodynamic stall, resulting in impact with terrain. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage. The pilot also reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with 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).

  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Capability exceeded

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2025_ERA26LA008.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 ↗