BFO88FA051 · Cessna 150F
Cessna 150F · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Dinwiddie County Airport (PTB) to Tangier Island Airport (TGI)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO88FA051
- 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 150F
- 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
- N6699F
- Operator
- William E. Branson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dinwiddie County Airport (PTB), Petersburg, VATo Tangier Island Airport (TGI), TANGIER ISLAND, VA
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not attained
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS BEING ACCOMPANIED BY A 182 DURING THE FLT FROM NC TO TANGIER ISLAND. BOTH ACFT LANDED AT PETERSBURG. A PASSENGER IN THE 182 HAD BECOME ILL. AFTER REFUELING AND SPENDING A SHORT TIME AT PETERSBURG, BOTH ACFT DEPARTED FOR TANGIER ISLAND WITH THE PASSENGER WHO HAD GOTTEN ILL NOW IN N6699F. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF THE ACFT CONTACTED TREES IN A WOODED AREA APRX 1 MILE FROM THE ARPT AT WHICH TIME THE LEFT HORIZONTAL STABILIZER SEPARATED FROM THE ACFT AND CONTROL WAS LOST. THE ACFT CRASHED INTO AN OPEN FIELD AND CAUGHT FIRE. A WITNESS RECALLED SEEING THE ACFT FLYING LOW AND SLOW PRIOR TO IT CONTACTING THE TREES. WEIGHT AND BALANCE INFO INDICATES THAT THE ACFT WAS AT LEAST 39 POUNDS OVER MAX GROSS WEIGHT AT TAKEOFF. THE PLT WAS KNOWN TO HAVE RARELY FLOWN WITH THIS PASSENGER IN A CESSNA 150 DUE TO WEIGHT RESTRICTIONS. BOTH PLT AND PAX WERE LARGE, APRX 300 LBS EACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO88FA051
- Event ID
- 20001213X25628
- Case number
- BFO88FA051
- 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: 72fcd6f686f7363576c4fc90270e98e7f1bfb65b7b513ac186ef574b45ba19d2; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:42:36.714Z.