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ATL95LA126 · Cessna A188B

3 Jul 1995 · Decatur, AL, United States

Cessna A188B · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing

From Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ATL95LA126
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 A188B

Aircraft type
Cessna 188
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
N6296G
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU), ALTo 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 137: Agricultural
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
Landing · landing roll
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
On ground/water collision with terrain/water
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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, THE AIRPLANE OPERATED NORMALLY UNTIL AFTER ARRIVING AT THE FIELD TO BE SPRAYED. HE STATED THAT DURING THE FOURTH SWATH RUN, THE AIRPLANE DID NOT FEEL AS 'SOLID' AS IT HAD EARLIER. HE ELECTED TO MAKE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING IN A NEARBY FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE FAILED TO DISCLOSE A MECHANICAL PROBLEM. DURING A TEST RUN, THE ENGINE PRODUCED RATED POWER.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF UNSUITABLE TERRAIN FOR A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING. WHICH RESULTED IN THE COLLAPSE OF THE MAIN LANDING GEAR. THE UNDETERMINED AIRCRAFT PROBLEM AND ROUGH/UNEVEN TERRAIN WERE RELATED FACTORS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL95LA126
Event ID
20001207X03859
Case number
ATL95LA126
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: 0a6316fde7023cba823862a3b6c5b3247223beb69657d5b17a97514aa53d16bb; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:42:04.393Z.