ATL89FA157 · Cessna 150K
Aerial Sign Co. of SC Cessna 150K · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Grand Strand Airport (CRE) to Grand Strand Airport (CRE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA157
- 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
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
- N6367G
- Operator
- Aerial Sign Co. of SC
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Strand Airport (CRE)To Grand Strand Airport (CRE)
- 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
- 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/spin; 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
- Company/operator management › Acft/equip, inadequate control location
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Diverted attention
- Pilot in command › Maneuver, abrupt
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
- Sign towing equipment › Unmarked
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of North Myrtle Beach, SC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD MADE A MULTIPLE TOW FLIGHT OF 4.1 HOURS WITH FIVE BANNER PICK UPS AND DROPS BEFORE STOPPING FOR FUEL. AFTER REFUELING, HE MADE ONE TOW OF 0.9 HOUR BEFORE RETURNING TO DROP THE BANNER. HE HAD BEEN CLEARED FOR RIGHT TRAFFIC TO DROP THE BANNER ALONGSIDE RUNWAY 23 AT GRAND STRAND. THE BANNER DID NOT DROP AND THE PILOT MADE A RIGHT TURN ACROSS THE INLAND WATERWAY. THE BANNER THEN DROPPED INTO THE WATER. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO MAKE A STEEP RIGHT BANK, THEN 'ENTER INTO A RIGHT SPIRAL INTO THE TREES'. AFTER ABOUT 4-5 MINUTES SMOKE WAS OBSERVED AT THE CRASH SITE. ONE BANNER PICK UP HOOK WAS FOUND IN THE WRECKAGE AND ALL FIVE BANNER TOW HOOKS WERE FOUND IN THE OPEN POSITION. THE COCKPIT BANNER RELEASE CONTROLS CONSISTED OF FIVE RINGS ATTACHED TO THE RELEASE CABLES AND WAS MOUNTED ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF THE RIGHT SEAT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S CONFUSION AND DIVERTED ATTENTION REGARDING THE MULTIPLE BANNER RELEASE SYSTEM IN THE COCKPIT RESULTING IN AN INADVERTENT STALL/SPIN INTO THE TERRAIN FROM A LOW ALTITUDE. ALSO CAUSAL WAS THE PILOT ATTEMPTING THE ABRUPT MANEUVER AT THE LOW AIRSPEED AND ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA157
- Event ID
- 20001213X28480
- Case number
- ATL89FA157
- 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: 5620a20adf88732f7df76c9f37ff27d64281e54331e053860844a5fc648fb4b6; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:18:06.140Z.