NYC87LA036 · Boeing Stearman 75
National Aerial Advertising Boeing Stearman 75 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC87LA036
- 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
Boeing Stearman 75
- Aircraft type
- Boeing Stearman 75
- 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
- N769WM
- Operator
- National Aerial Advertising
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual separation, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of North Andover, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THREE BANNERS WERE LAID OUT FOR PICKUP BY TWO STEARMAN AIRCRAFT. ONE BANNER WAS AN EXTRA. THE TWO STEARMANS APPROACHED THE BANNER PICK UP POINT AS A FLIGHT OF TWO. AS THE FIRST AIRCRAFT MADE ITS PICKUP AN EXTRA BANNER BECAME TANGLED WITH THE DESIGNATED PICKUP BANNER AND TWO BANNERS WERE CARRIED INTO THE AIR. AS THE SECOND AIRCRAFT APPROACHED THE PICKUP POINT THE EXTRA BANNER FELL FREE, HOWEVER THE SECOND PILOT DID NOT SEE THE FREE FALLING BANNER DUE TO REDUCED FORWARD VISIBILITY CAUSED BY THE UPPER WING. AS THE SECOND AIRCRAFT MADE HER PICKUP AND STARTED HER INTIAL CLIMB, THE FREE FALLING BANNER MADE CONTACT WITH BOTH THE UPPER AND LOWER LEFT WING. THE PILOT STATED THE LEFT WING STALLED AND THE AIRCRAFT STALLED ON TO THE RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE AND THE UPPER WING FUEL TANK RUPTURED AND WAS LEAKING. THERE WAS NO FIRE. THE PILOT RECEIVED SERIOUS INJURIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC87LA036
- Event ID
- 20001213X35265
- Case number
- NYC87LA036
- 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: 36b398149054ab53f41b3e84177590720dbf4bddc4febdbff21d1aa45063d762; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:48:51.744Z.