ATL95LA089 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 and Cessna 182P · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95LA089
- 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N5527M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4A9To 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 182P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N20841
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4A9To 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 152 & A CESSNA 182 COLLIDED, NEARLY HEAD-ON, AT 2600 FEET ABOUT THREE MILES NORTHEAST OF THE AIRPORT. THE 152 PILOT WAS MANEUVERING THE AIRPLANE TO CONDUCT A LONG STRAIGHT-IN APPROACH TO RUNWAY 22, & WAS NORTHEAST BOUND, IN A CLIMB, AT THE TIME OF THE COLLISION. THE 182 PILOT WAS CONDUCTING A VISUAL APPROACH TO RUNWAY 22, USING THE NDB APPROACH PROCEDURES. HE WAS SOUTHWEST BOUND, HAD JUST PASSED THE NDB INBOUND TO THE FIELD, & HAD BEGUN A DESCENT, WHEN THE COLLISION OCCURRED. THE 152 PILOT SAW THE 182 A SPLIT SECOND BEFORE IMPACT & BEGAN AN EVASIVE DIVE. ACCORDING TO THE 182 PILOT, HE SAW THE 152 ABOUT 50 FEET BELOW HIM, SLIGHTLY LEFT OF HIS COURSE, & HAD INSUFFICIENT TIME TO BEGIN AN EVASIVE MANEUVER. THE LEFT MAIN WHEEL OF THE 182 CONTACTED THE VERTICAL STABILIZER OF THE 152, SEPARATING THE RUDDER OF THE 152. BOTH PILOTS WERE USING THE CTAF. ACCORDING TO THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR FOR BOTH PILOTS, WHO WAS ALSO FLYING AT THE TIME, THE 152 PILOT HAD NOT MADE ANY POSITION REPORTS. THE 152 PILOT REPORTED DIFFICULTIES HEARING INFORMATION PROVIDED TO HIM, BY UNICOM, REGARDING TRAFFIC.
Probable cause
The inadequate visual lookout by both pilots. Factors were the radio reception difficulties of the 152 pilot, his failure to make position reports while maneuvering for a landing, and the failure of the 182 pilot to have a safety observer while conducting visual instrument-procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95LA089
- Event ID
- 20001207X03230
- Case number
- ATL95LA089
- 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: ebd7370bb171a3d22d46fb728d8cdc2d16c31c59eea8d9b2e0bdb589b1621297; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:00:44.521Z.