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FTW87DPA03 · Rollins STARLITE

26 Jun 1987 · Arlington, TX, United States

Rollins STARLITE · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
FTW87DPA03
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
2 · 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

Rollins STARLITE

Aircraft type
Rollins STARLITE
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
N172SL
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
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
Initial climb
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
Loss of control in flight
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 › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
  • Pilot in command › Powerplant controls, improper use of

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT FOR THE 156 HOUR PRIVATE PILOT IN THIS MAKE AND MODEL AIRPLANE, HOWEVER, HE HAD PREVIOUSLY MADE SEVERAL HIGH SPEED TAXI RUNS IN IT. ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE PILOT USED ONLY ABOUT HALF THROTTLE FOR THE ATTEMPTED TAKEOFF. THE AIRCRAFT REPORTEDLY SHOULD HAVE LIFTED OFF WITHIN 300 FEET, BUT INSTEAD, IT FAILED TO BREAK GROUND UNTIL IT WAS ABOUT 2,000 FEET DOWN THE RUNWAY. IT CLIMBED TO ABOUT 50 FEET AGL AND THEN THE NOSE PITCHED UP TO ABOUT A 20 DEGREE ATTITUDE AND THE AIRSPEED DROPPED TO ABOUT 30 MPH OR LESS. IT THEN STALLED AND ROLLED SHARPLY LEFT AND WENT INVERTED. THE AIRCRAFT THEN ENTERED A NEAR VERTICAL NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE WHICH WAS MAINTAINED UNTIL GROUND IMPACT OCCURRED. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF AIRCRAFT, ENGINE, OR SYSTEM FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. LIKEWISE, THE PATHOLOGICAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE PILOT REVEALED NO SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW87DPA03
Event ID
20001213X31184
Case number
FTW87DPA03
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-06-27.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 41be1c625085224b2bf0a4e578a0d34aecfdbcff346f7b05bd1986162415a6b4; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:05:41.620Z.