FTW88FA074 · Cessna 150J
Cessna 150J and Bunch EAA Biplane P2-M · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88FA074
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N5522G
- Operator
- Craig B. Johnson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Whitehouse, TXTo F12
- 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 base
- 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 · Bunch EAA Biplane P2-M
- Aircraft type
- Bunch Eaa Biplane P2
- 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
- N5554
- Operator
- Will R. Ormsby · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F12To 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Destroyed
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 HAD JUST ROLLED OUT ON BASE ON 3RD OR 4TH TOUCH AND GO WHEN IT COLLIDED WITH A BIPLANE THAT WAS NOT IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN. COLLISION OCCURRED BETWEEN THE OUTER PANEL OF THE LEFT UPPER WING OF THE BIPLANE AND THE RT SIDE OF THE ENG COWLING OF THE CESSNA. NEITHER PLT IN THE CESSNA SAW THE BIPLANE PRIOR TO IMPACT AND THE EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT EVASIVE ACTION WAS NOT TAKEN BY EITHER ACFT. FOLLOWING IMPACT, THE CESSNA LANDED AT THE ARPT WITH A DAMAGED NOSE GEAR THAT COLLAPSED ON TOUCHDOWN. THE LEFT UPPER WING OF THE BIPLANE SEPARATED AND THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A SPIRAL FROM WHICH THE PLT DID NOT RECOVER. THE CESSNA WAS HEADING DIRECTLY INTO THE SETTING SUN. VFR CONDITIONS PREVAILED AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88FA074
- Event ID
- 20001213X25076
- Case number
- FTW88FA074
- 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: 2e6d17ef75db90d5f1a1d30b4ae59a921666be2604bb34d06a79d16bb88e5a94; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:48:03.309Z.