CHI97LA225 · Sorrell SNS-7
Sorrell SNS-7 · Accident: abrupt maneuver while maneuvering
From T08 to T08
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97LA225
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Sorrell SNS-7
- Aircraft type
- Sorrell SNS-7
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N774HB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From T08To T08
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Abrupt maneuver
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Tailplane stall, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the aerobatic routine, two snap rolls to the right were accomplished. At the end of the second roll, the pilot experienced a sharp roll to the left. After leveling out the pilot complained of no elevator control. Altitude could not be maintained and, with the engine at full power, the airplane impacted into trees. The postaccident examination shows no mechanical defects that could not be attributed to the loss of control. Engine and flight control continuity checks normal. Evidence shows engine was running at a high power setting consistent with the pilot's account.
Probable cause
The pilot encountered a tailplane stall. The factors involved were the pilot conducted a low altitude flight maneuver and encountered engine torque effect.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97LA225
- Event ID
- 20001208X08337
- Case number
- CHI97LA225
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 91450c0b1d0813b08732ead17c9826b765751a402ce885d5ad6aaba5393ca956; retrieved 2026-09-22T19:00:15.230Z.