ATL91FA110 · Cessna 150J
Cessna 150J · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91FA110
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 150J
- 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
- N60466
- Operator
- Rutledge, Joe R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, attempted
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT WAS TAXIING HIS AIRPLANE AT 4 A.M. WITH A FRIEND ON BOARD. A WITNESS REPORTED FORWARD VISIBILITY TO BE 300 FEET IN HEAVY FOG. WHILE TAXIING ON THE RUNWAY WITH THE NOSE WHEEL OFF THE GROUND (FULL POWER APPLIED), THE RUNWAY LIGHTS WENT OUT. THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE, AND THE PASSENGER BEGAN TO PANIC. A STRUGGLE FOR CONTROL ENSUED, AND THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES PAST THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT'S BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL AFTER THE ACCIDENT WAS .04 PERCENT. THE PASSENGER'S BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL WAS 0.13 PERCENT. THE AIRPLANE HAD NOT BEEN INSPECTED IN OVER 14 MONTHS, AND THE PILOT REPORTED NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRPLANE DURING THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS ATTEMPTED FLIGHT IN ADVERSE WEATHER AND THE PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT OF THE STUDENT PILOT FROM THE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES PRIOR TO FLIGHT. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FOGGY WEATHER CONDITION AT THE AIRPORT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91FA110
- Event ID
- 20001212X17162
- Case number
- ATL91FA110
- 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: 0cd0104ef5bb98b98f16e3df68f30447b01486afb858edf8ff07950d63e54949; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:45:59.933Z.