ATL96LA063 · Cessna 172RG
Cessna 172RG and Hughes 269C · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL96LA063
- 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 172RG
- 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
- N6612V
- Operator
- James D. Jeter · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From AL15To 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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 · Hughes 269C
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 269
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N7480F
- Operator
- Donald T. Morgan · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From AL15To 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
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
The Cessna 172RG and a Hughes 269 helicopter, collided about 150 feet above the ground on the final approach course for runway 9. The Cessna was on the final approach for landing on runway 9, while the helicopter was proceeding south southeast across the final approach course to land at a hangar on the south side of the airport. The helicopter pilot had just completed hovering practice on the north side of the airport, and had circled north northwest, west, south, and then headed southeast to the landing area. Based upon the reported damage, the helicopter main rotor contacted the left flap and horizontal stabilizer/elevator of the Cessna. The Cessna pilot stated he reported his position as he entered right base for runway 9, and as he turned onto final at 500 feet above ground. The Hughes pilot did not report making any radio transmissions. Both pilots stated they glimpsed the opposing aircraft just prior to the collision. Both pilots reported taking evasive action, which was ineffectual. The Cessna continued and was landed on the runway, while the helicopter pilot executed an autorotation and landed near the collision site.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilots to maintain an adequate visual lookout. A factor was the lack of position reports via radio by the pilot of the helicopter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL96LA063
- Event ID
- 20001208X05358
- Case number
- ATL96LA063
- 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: b4014e94f2f90c7593669d3532b51e9d49871e66d66a5884a6cc24c39b347fa4; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:44:59.335Z.