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Atlas / NTSB / FTW89FA024

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW89FA024

1988-11-24 WEATHERFORD, Texas, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N5337S

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-28-181

Year of manufacture

2001

Engine

LYCOMING O-360 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20010731

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A6BEF0

Registrant of record

ANN ARBOR FLYERS INC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN MINIMUM REQUIRED AIRSPEED FOR SLOW FLIGHT (VS), RESULTING IN A STALL WITH INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO RECOVER. A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS THE PIPER PILOT'S UNANNOUNCED FLY-BY, WHICH DIVERTED THE CESSNA PILOT'S ATTENTION.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT WAS DESCENDING HIS AIRPLANE WHILE IN SLOW FLIGHT WITH 10 DEGREES FLAPS IN A DOWNWIND TRACK TO LOOK AT PROPERTY THAT HE PLANNED TO PURCHASE. A SECOND AIRPLANE FLEW BY HIS AIRPLANE AT THE LOW ALTITUDE AND BANKED AWAY SHARPLY. THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE'S WINGS WOBBLED, THE NOSE DROPPED AND IT IMPACTED INTO AN OPEN WHEAT FIELD. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1988_FTW89FA024.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 ↗