MIA94FA148 · Cessna A150M
Cessna A150M · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From X58 to X58
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA94FA148
- 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
Cessna A150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N9856J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From X58To X58
- 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
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Impairment(drugs)
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS OBSERVED DRINKING BEER BEFORE FLIGHT. AFTER THE FLIGHT DEPARTED, A WITNESS SAW THE AIRCRAFT MANEUVERING. HE SAID THE PILOT MADE A HIGH SPEED PASS DOWN THE RUNWAY, THEN EXECUTED A VERTICAL ASCENT TO ABOUT 500 FEET AGL. THE AIRPLANE THEN BEGAN TO DESCEND NOSE LOW WHILE SPINNING & IMPACTED THE GROUND. THE WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE SOUNDED 'STRONG' DURING THE ENTIRE TIME. AN EXAM OF THE AIRFRAME REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT FLIGHT CONTROL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. A TOXICOLOGY CHECK OF THE PILOT'S BLOOD SHOWED AN ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 155 MG/DL (0.155%) & 0.004 UG/ML OF TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL CARBOXYLIC ACID (MARIJUANA). TESTS OF HIS URINE SHOWED AN ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 226 MG/DL (0.226%) & 0.017 UG/ML OF TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL CARBOXYLIC ACID.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPAIRMENT OF JUDGMENT AND PERFORMANCE DUE TO ALCOHOL AND DRUGS, WHICH LED TO HIS IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED DURING A MANEUVER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA94FA148
- Event ID
- 20001206X01339
- Case number
- MIA94FA148
- 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: f9c4a85ae5b4041b4934d4f7d23913e84d21bc2d8885ee02c0069e1892602596; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:09:02.869Z.