CHI91FA033 · Cessna 150K
Cessna 150K · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Salina Municipal Airport (SLN) to 3KM · Wichita, KS
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91FA033
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 150K
- 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
- N6026G
- Operator
- Linnie David Hudson
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salina Municipal Airport (SLN), Salina, KSTo 3KM · Wichita, KS
- 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 · IFR initial approach
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT 2137 CST, THE PLT RCVD A WX BRIEFING FOR A FLT FROM SALINA, KS TO JABARA ARPT (3KM) AT WICHITA, KS. AT THAT TIME, VFR CONDS PREVAILED AT WICHITA & THE TEMP & DEW POINT HAD A 1 DEG SPREAD. THE PLT TOOK OFF OVR 1 HR LATER & DID NOT FILE A FLT PLN. HE CTCD WICHITA APCH CTL & SAID HE WAS VFR & HAD ENCTRD FOG. HE WAS ADZD THAT 2 OTR FLTS HAD MADE MISSED APCHS FM 3KM, BUT THE PLT ELECTED TO CONT. THE CTLR ISSUED AN IFR CLNC & STARTED TO PROVIDE VECTORS FOR A VOR/A APCH TO 3KM. THE CTLR THEN LEARNED THE PLT DID NOT HAVE APCH PLATES FOR THE AREA. HE DESCRIBED THE APCH IN DETAIL & CONTD PROVIDING VECTORS TO A FINAL APCH, BUT THE ACFT TURNED AWAY FM THE FINAL APCH COURSE. THE CTLR INSTRUCTED THE PLT TO CLB TO 3000' & ASKED IF HE WANTED VECTORS TO WICHITA MID-CONTINENT ARPT (ICT) FOR AN ILS. THE PLT AGREED. THE CTLR AGAIN TOLD THE PLT TO CLB TO 3000' & PROVIDED A VECTOR FOR AN ILS RWY 19R APCH AT ICT; HOWEVER, THE ACFT ENTERED A DSCNT & CRASHED. THE PLT NEVER ADZD THE CTLR THAT HE WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED.
Probable cause
CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT BY THE PILOT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC), AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT AFTER BECOMING SPATIALLY DISORIENTED. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND THE PILOT'S OVERCONFIDENCE IN HIS PERSONAL ABILITIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91FA033
- Event ID
- 20001212X24588
- Case number
- CHI91FA033
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-11-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d5ea257a1161323816ff285f9ef55d4632f41f5a435b040738c055be5d91fa4b; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:04:04.847Z.