ATL94FA062 · Cessna 152
Southeastern School of Aero Cessna 152 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Savannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) to Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94FA062
- 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
- 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
Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N67581
- Operator
- Southeastern School of Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Savannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV), Savannah, GATo Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE), Columbia, SC
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OBTAINED A VFR WX BRIEFING AT ABOUT 1624 EST, WHICH CALLED FOR VMC ALONG HIS ROUTE. AFTER HE COMPLETED THE 1ST LEG, HE CALLED FSS TO FILE A VFR FLIGHT PLAN, BUT HE DID NOT GET AN UPDATED WX BRIEF, CONTRARY TO SCHOOL RULES. THE TAKEOFF FOR THE 2ND LEG WAS AT 2158, OR ABOUT 5 1/2 HOURS AFTER HIS WX BRIEF. AN UPDATED AREA FORECAST CALLED FOR ISOLATED THUNDERSHOWERS, AND RAIN SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS WERE OBSERVED IN THE AREA PRIOR TO HIS DEPARTURE ON THE 2ND LEG. DURING CRUISE ON THE 2ND LEG, HE REPORTED DIFFICULTY MAINTAINING VFR. HE DIVERTED TO ALLENDALE AIRPORT. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE ACFT ENTERED TRAFFIC FOR RWY 17, THEN EXECUTED A GO-AROUND. THE AIRCRAFT WAS LAST SEEN IN A DESCENDING, LEFT TURN TOWARD RUNWAY 35. THE WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE WINDS WERE VARIABLE AND GUSTY, WITH MOD TO HEAVY RAIN, AND A CEILING OF GREATER THAN 2,000 FEET. THE ACFT COLLIDED W/TREES AND CAME TO REST IN A PASTURE 1 MI SSE OF THE AIRPORT. EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT REVEAL EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER ALTITUDE WHILE IN THE VFR TRAFFIC PATTERN, RESULTING IN A COLLISION WITH TREES. FACTORS WERE; HIS FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH SCHOOL DIRECTIVES BY NOT OBTAINING A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT, AND THE RAIN, GUSTING WINDS, AND DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS AT TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94FA062
- Event ID
- 20001206X00835
- Case number
- ATL94FA062
- 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 1994-03-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9de3a8ec7e3f09b71c010483c747afe4739e37037c6fe51944faac08e3246eb6; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:13:30.227Z.