LAX91LA197 · Cessna 150
Cessna 150 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From Fernley, NV (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA197
- 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 150
- 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
- N45301
- Operator
- Robert Miller
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fernley, NV (no airport)To 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
- 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 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 › Performance data, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT WITH ONE PASSENGER DEPARTED A RURAL GRAVEL AIRSTRIP FOR A LOCAL FLIGHT. THE PILOT UTILIZED A SOFT FIELD TAKEOFF PROCEDURE BUT WAS UNABLE TO CLIMB AFTER RETRACTING THE AIRPLANE FLAPS. THE AIRPLANE, LOADED WITHIN .3 POUNDS OF ITS GROSS WEIGHT, STARTED TO SETTLE TOWARD RISING TERRAIN AFTER ONLY CLIMBING ABOUT 50 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. THE PILOT MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING ON A ROAD ABOUT A MILE FROM THE AIRSTRIP AND DURING THE LANDING, THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL RESPONDED AND NOTED THAT THE AIRPLANE AND PILOT BORE THE ODOR OF ALCOHOL BEVERAGES. AFTER AN INVESTIGATION, THE PILOT WAS ARRESTED FOR OPERATING AN AIRCRAFT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ADEQUATELY ASSESS THE CLIMB PERFORMANCE OF THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE DUE TO BEING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA197
- Event ID
- 20001212X17031
- Case number
- LAX91LA197
- 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: 054ab0bb4c3e71b56db35e6f20b0fbdeb558e4f2f538c0034ac25dba5e4ba939; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:14:03.512Z.