ATL96LA001 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From UNK · HUNTER ARMY A/F, GA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL96LA001
- 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 172M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N9553H
- Operator
- John W. Wang · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From UNK · HUNTER ARMY A/F, GATo 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
- Landing · emergency landing
- 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
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- 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
After requesting fuel availability for various airport's from Savannah Approach Control, the pilot declared an emergency and landed at the Hunter Army Air Field. After landing, he taxied to a remote part of the airport and removed hand made fuel lines connecting three six gallon tanks to the left wing tank. These additional tanks were stored where the rear seat had been installed. The pilot did not refuel the aircraft prior to takeoff, and after departure, the engine began to run rough. He elected to execute a precautionary landing along Savannah's Highway 516, where the aircraft collided with a road sign. The pilot then lost control, and the aircraft skidded into a guard rail and flipped over. Two pilots were aboard the aircraft. Both repeatedly changed their stories concerning who they were, and what transpired prior to the accident. An FAA examiner stated that there was approximately fifteen gallons of automotive fuel in the aircraft's right wing, and no fuel in the left wing. He also stated that the aircraft appeared to have been configured for transportation of unauthorized material.
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for a precautionary landing, and his failure to maintain clearance from an obstacle (road sign) during the landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL96LA001
- Event ID
- 20001207X04630
- Case number
- ATL96LA001
- 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: 0032b0b718ce4c8c82f90dbdcfaf501a2088c43d801b19b5587e6244a4d60cfe; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:03:15.319Z.