CHI02LA007 · Woodrow Stolp-Adams Starduster SA-100
Woodrow Stolp-Adams Starduster SA-100 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA007
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Woodrow Stolp-Adams Starduster SA-100
- Aircraft type
- Woodrow Stolp Adams STARDUSTER SA-100
- 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
- N64HW
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to witnesses to the accident, the airplane was maneuvering at a low altitude over their residence at the time of accident. The witnesses reported that the airplane was turning back towards their position when it impacted the top of a tree and subsequently impacted the terrain. One witness reported that the airplane's engine had "normal" power prior to the impact with the tree line. There was a debris field, approximately 125 feet long by 50 feet wide, which was orientated on an easterly heading. At the western edge of the debris field, approximately 125 feet from the tree line, there was a ground-impact and fragmented portions of tree material. The aircraft wreckage was located approximately 100 feet from the initial ground impact and was facing west. The entire airplane was exposed to varying degrees of fire damage. The fabric covering of the fuselage and tail surfaces were completely burned. The entire wing was consumed in the post-impact fire. The engine, cowling structure, and propeller were damaged by fire. No mechanical anomalies were found with the airplane or its flight control systems. At the pilot's last medical examination he reported that he had accumulated a total flight time of 1,500 hours.
Probable cause
The pilot not maintaining altitude/clearance from the tree line. Factors to the accident were the pilot attempting the low altitude flight/maneuver and the presence of the tree line.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA007
- Event ID
- 20011023X02138
- Case number
- CHI02LA007
- 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: 04851ebf720d92c7d7dfd799542f7b05ee3ab56cfac30cadf208bb6be7351846; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:19:22.743Z.