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Atlas / NTSB / MKC87FA077

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MKC87FA077

1987-04-12 COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa, United States Airport · CBF Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

ACQUAINTANCES STATED THAT THE STUDENT PILOT WAS VERY MOTIVATED IN THE PURSUIT OF HIS PRIVATE PILOT CERTIFICATE AND THAT, ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT, HE WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS FIRST SOLO FLIGHT. ACCORDING TO HIS INSTRUCTOR-PILOT, WHO ALSO WITNESSED THE ACCIDENT, THE STUDENT ACCOMPLISHED A SUCCESSFUL FIRST SOLO FLIGHT AND TAXIED BACK FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS. AFTER A SHORT DEBRIEFING AND DISCUSSION WITH HIS INSTRUCTOR THE STUDENT TAXIED BACK TO THE RUNWAY AND MADE A NORMAL TAKE-OFF, CLIMBOUT, AND CLOSED-CIRCUIT TRAFFIC PATTERN. DURING FINAL APPROACH, OTHER WITNESSES STATED, THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN INCREASING THE PITCH ATTITUDE AND LOSING ALTITUDE WITHOUT ANY SUBSTANTIAL INPUT IN POWER. THE STUDENT SUDDENLY BROKE OFF THE APPROACH WHILE OVER THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD AND PROCEEDED IN AN ERRATIC, NOSE-HIGH, LEFT TURN MANEUVER BACK TO THE AIRPORT. HE CONTINUED IN THIS CONFIGURATION UNTIL THE AIRCRAFT APPEARED TO LOSE CONTROL IN A STALL-SPIN THEN PLUMMET, NOSE FIRST TO THE GROUND. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_MKC87FA077.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 ↗