FTW95LA042 · Cessna 150M
Cessna 150M · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Addison Airport (ADS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA042
- 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
Cessna 150M
- 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
- N9237U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, TX
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Wire, static
- 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 › Proper climb rate, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAKEOFF INTO DARK NIGHT VMC, 'THE ENGINE BEGAN A SERIES OF SURGES AND BEGAN TO LOSE AIRSPEED.' WHILE MANEUVERING TO AVOID OBSTACLES, THE AIRPLANE MAINTAINED LEVEL FLIGHT AND EXECUTED LEVEL TURNS. AS THE PILOT 'PULLED UP SHARPLY' TO AVOID POWER LINES, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK WIRES WITH THE MAIN LANDING GEAR. AFTER STRIKING THE WIRES, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A TELEPHONE POLE AND THEN DESCENDED TO THE GROUND ABOUT 150-200 FEET PAST THE POLE. BOTH THE LEFT FRONT CYLINDER FIN AND SPINNER CONE DISPLAYED CYLINDRICAL CRUSHING. A TELEPHONE POLE WAS FOUND SHEARED OFF APPROXIMATELY 12 FEET FROM THE TOP. ENGINE EXAMINATION AND TEARDOWN DID NOT REVEAL ANY MECHANICAL ANOMALIES. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT'S DIAGRAM, THE AIRPLANE WAS EITHER IN LEVEL FLIGHT OR BANKING TO AVOID OBSTACLES FOR APRX 0.6 MILES PAST THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY PRIOR TO STRIKING WIRES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN A PROPER CLIMB RATE AFTER TAKEOFF. A FACTOR WAS THE DARK NIGHT LIGHT CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA042
- Event ID
- 20001206X02595
- Case number
- FTW95LA042
- 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 1994-11-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a62575268cb96625b3e4e4884259f5b1d9a26075f01aaf3a7b83edcc00e3924e; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:26:33.709Z.