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Atlas / NTSB / WPR25LA251

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR25LA251

2025-08-11 Kalispell, Montana, United States Airport · S27 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N860CA

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

SOCATA TBM 700

Year of manufacture

2011 · 14 years old at event

Engine

P&W CANADA PT6A-66 SER (850 hp)

Seats / Engines

7 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20111114

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S ABCF0A

Registrant of record

METER SKY LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s unstable approach to the runway, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at low altitude and impact with terrain.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the airplane reported that the airplane was too high during approach to the airport, and he responded by reducing the engine power to idle. When the airplane was about 40 ft above the runway, the “airspeed” aural caution sounded, and the pilot added engine power; however, the airspeed continued to decay, and the “stall” aural warning sounded. The airplane subsequently rolled left, impacted terrain alongside the left side of the runway, caught fire, and slid into the airport apron. The pilot and passengers were able to exit the airplane through the main cabin door before the airplane was destroyed by postaccident fire. The pilot reported there were no preaccident mechanical failures or 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-Airspeed-Not attained/maintained
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Descent/approach/glide path-Not attained/maintained

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2025_WPR25LA251.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 ↗