ATL87LA261 · Cessna 150E
Professional Pilot Cessna 150E · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to W16 · Winchester, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87LA261
- 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 150E
- 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
- N2599J
- Operator
- Professional Pilot
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo W16 · Winchester, 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Cracked
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Binding(mechanical)
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Winston-Salem, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STU PLT DISCUSSED A CROSS COUNTRY FLT WITH HIS CFI, BUT DID NOT GET A SIGN OFF NOR GIVE A DATE FOR THE FLT. HE THEN RENTED AN ACFT AND DEPARTED ON THE FLT. DURING THE FLT, THE COM RADIO'S BECAME INOP. THE OPERATOR AND THE CFI WERE CALLED FROM AN ENROUTE LNDG POINT AND MADE AWARE OF THE PROBLEM. AFTER DISCUSSING THE SITUATION AND A PROPOSED ROUTE FOR THE RETURN FLT, THE CFI GAVE VERBAL APPROVAL. THE PLT ARRIVED AT THE ARPT EARLY IN THE MORNING SO THAT HE COULD TKOF PRIOR TO THE TWR OPENING. HE DPTD ON RWY 21, TURNED LEFT, AND OVERFLEW RWY 15 TO THE END WHERE HE TURNED LEFT AGAIN. A WITNESS STD THAT THE ACFT DID NOT SOUND RIGHT FM THE START OF THE TKOF. A TURN BACK TO THE ARPT WAS MADE. A 737 ON FINAL APP TO RWY 33 WAS OBSERVED. THE PLT ATTEMPTED A 360 DEGREE TURN BUT RAN OUT OF ALT AND IMPACTED SOME TREES AT THE ARPT BOUNDRY. THE CREW OF THE 737 WERE ADVISED OF TRAFFIC IN THE AREA AND OBSERVED A SMALL ACFT TURN AWAY FROM THE ARPT. EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED A STUCK EXHAUST VALVE IN THE NO. 2 CYL AND A CRACK IN THE HEAD OF NO. 3 CYL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87LA261
- Event ID
- 20001213X32009
- Case number
- ATL87LA261
- 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: 7ab1aedcf9fef1ba8071569d5100527806536da29b06cfba811833facd401dca; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:19:22.429Z.