Definition
Accidents in which the airplane stalls (wing exceeds its critical angle of attack and loses lift) and then enters a spin (an aggravated stall in which the airplane descends in a corkscrewing path with one wing more deeply stalled than the other). These accidents are usually fatal when they occur at low altitude because there is not enough height to recover before ground impact.
Plain English
Crashes that happen when a pilot lets the wing stop flying, the airplane drops a wing into a spin, and there isn't enough altitude left to pull out before hitting the ground.
Context Anchor
Encountered in low-altitude engine-failure training, especially when discussing takeoff emergencies, forced landings, and attempts to turn back toward the runway.
Derivation
Stall comes from an older word meaning to stop or come to a standstill. Spin means to rotate. Together, the phrase points to the dangerous sequence: the wing stops producing normal lift, and the airplane begins rotating downward.
Why Pilots Care
These events are among the leading causes of fatal general-aviation accidents because the combination of stall and spin leaves almost no margin for error when altitude is low.
Grounding Statement
Picture an engine failure after takeoff: if the pilot pulls the nose up too much while turning, the airplane can stall and start rotating toward the ground before there is room to recover.
Intuition Check
A stall spin accident is not just an engine failure accident. The engine failure may start the emergency, but the accident happens when the pilot lets the airplane stall and begin rotating downward.
Example Sentence 1
Most stall spin accidents occur close to the ground, where there is no altitude available to recover.
Example Sentence 2
The handbook warns that stall spin accidents can be prevented by immediately lowering the nose to maintain airspeed rather than trying to stretch a glide.