ATL89LA191 · Cessna 177B
Cessna 177B · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Ozark-Blackwell Field (71J) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA191
- 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
- 0 · 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 177B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N35131
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ozark-Blackwell Field (71J), Ozark, ALTo 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fort Gaines, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT LANDED THE AIRPLANE TO CALM AN UPSET CHILD WHO WAS ON HIS FIRST AIRPLANE RIDE. AFTER THE CHILD HAD BEEN CALMED THE AIRPLANE WAS REBOARDED AND A DEPARTURE ATTEMPTED FROM THE GRASS STRIP ON RUNWAY 19. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE WIND WAS FROM THE WEST AT ONE KNOT. THE NEAREST WX REPORTING FACILITY, 40 NMI EAST, REPORTED THE WIND AS 240 DEGREES AT FIVE KNOTS. AFTER LIFT OFF THE AIRPLANE SETTLED BACK ONTO THE RUNWAY, THEN LIFTED OFF AGAIN. AT THE SECOND TAKE OFF THE PILOT ALLOWED THE AIRPLANE TO DRIFT RIGHT, DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB, AND HIT A TREE WITH THE RIGHT WING. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE DURING TAKEOFF, WHICH RESULTED IN A COLLISION WITH TREES ADJACENT TO THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA191
- Event ID
- 20001213X29033
- Case number
- ATL89LA191
- 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 1989-08-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c4731072a1fe3096bbde0b22d60081672efc3c2181a5cc14dc9515b46870484c; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:17:31.906Z.