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NYC07CA099

2007-04-19 · Lakeland, Florida, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport LAL

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's improper flare and failure to maintain airspeed, which resulted in a stall and subsequent loss of control. A factor was the sun glare.

Factual narrative

According to the pilot, as he flared the Monocoupe 90A for landing, the setting sun "got into [his] eyes," and he misjudged the airplane's height above the runway. He flared "too high," the airplane "stalled," rolled to the right, and impacted a ditch that was parallel to the runway. The pilot reported he could have prevented the accident by increasing his approach to landing speed and initiating the flare closer to the ground. As the pilot flared for landing, the setting sun "got into [his] eyes," and he misjudged the airplane's height above the runway. He flared "too high," the airplane "stalled," rolled to the right, and impacted a ditch that was parallel to the runway. The pilot reported he could have prevented the accident by increasing his approach to landing speed and initiating the flare closer to the ground. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2007_NYC07CA099.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, loss of control). All research papers