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FTW90FA168 · Cessna 150M

26 Aug 1990 · Baton Rouge, LA, United States

Capitol City Air Service Cessna 150M · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW90FA168
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
2 · 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 150M

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
N66369
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR), Baton Rouge, LATo 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
Maneuvering · turn to landing area (emergency)
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
Loss of control in flight
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
Stall
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

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

NTSB narrative

THE PRIVATE PILOT RECEIVED HIS PILOT'S LICENSE THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. ON THE ACCIDENT DAY, HE HAD GIVEN HIS MOTHER A RIDE, THEN TOOK UP HIS FATHER. TOWER SAID TAKEOFF AND CLIMB WAS NORMAL TO 200 TO 300 FEET AGL. PILOT SAID HE TURNED AROUND FOR IMMEDIATE LANDING, THEN SAID, 'I CAN'T HEAR YOU.' FROM A NOSE HIGH, STEEP LEFT BANK, THE AIRPLANE WENT TO THE GROUND. IT IMPACTED NEAR VERTICAL. WITNESS FIRST SAID HE HEARD A LOUD BANG, THEN SAW AIRPLANE ON THE GROUND. HE LATER SAID HE HEARD A SPUTTERING SOUND, THEN HEARD A LOUD BANK, THEN SAW THE AIRPLANE ON THE GROUND. WITH IMPACT DAMAGE REPAIRED OR REPLACED, ON TEST STAND, ENGINE LATER RAN TO 2,710 RPM. DURING INVESTIGATION, RIGHT DOOR WAS FOUND WITH DIAGONAL IMPACT MARK THAT MATCHED RIGHT WING STRUT. THE RIGHT DOOR LOCK AND THE DOOR-POST-LOCK- RECEPTACLE WERE NOT DAMAGED. THERE WAS PAINT MATCHING THE RIGHT DOOR, ON THE RIGHT WING STRUT.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL DURING THE STEEP TURN. A FACTOR WAS THE DOOR OPENING IN FLIGHT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW90FA168
Event ID
20001212X24004
Case number
FTW90FA168
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: 174ccef38fd2d1e4d5feac40a6fb9035030e698414409a1073a7845933c2ad91; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:19:17.181Z.