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FTW88LA010 · Cessna 150L

22 Oct 1987 · Lancaster, TX, United States

Cessna 150L · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing

From ABL · Abilene, TX to DALLAS-FT WORTH, TX

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Event

NTSB case
FTW88LA010
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 150L

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
N17176
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From ABL · Abilene, TXTo DALLAS-FT WORTH, TX
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
Landing · landing roll
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
On ground/water collision with terrain/water
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

  • Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Instructions, written/verbal, improper
  • Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

WHILE RTRNG FM A X-COUNTRY, THE STUDENT BCM DISORIENTED & REQD ASSISTANCE. REDBIRD TWR CTLR ADZD DALLAS-FT WORTH TRACON THAT THE PLT WAS LOST & NEEDED A BEACON IDENTIFICATION. A FEW MIN LATER, THE ACFT'S LOCATION WAS DETERMINED & THE CTLR AT REDBIRD RELAYED A VECTOR FOR THE PLT TO FLY TO REDBIRD. LATER, THE PLT ADZD HIS FUEL LEVEL WAS GETTING LOW. HE WAS GIVEN A FREQ TO TALK TO TRACON DIRECTLY. COMMUNICATIONS WERE WEAK & OTHER CONSIDERATIONS PROMPTED THE TRACON CTLR TO VECTOR THE PLT TO LANCASTER. AFTER THE PLT FND THE ARPT, RADAR SVC WAS TERMINATED. BFR LNDG, THE PLT SAW AN X ON THE RWY (INDCG IT WAS CLOSED), SO HE ABORTED THE APCH & CIRCLED THE ARPT. IN DUSK CONDS, HE SAW A LIGHT COLORED AREA BESIDE THE CLOSED RWY WHICH APPEARED TO BE A NEW RWY & ELECTED TO LND; HOWEVER, THIS WAS AN AREA OF CONSTRUCTION WITH SOFT DIRT. DRG THE LNDG, THE ACFT NOSED OVER. WHEN THE TRACON CTLR CONTACTED REDBIRD TWR TO ADZ THE PLT HAD DIVERTED, HE WAS REMINDED THAT LANCASTER ARPT WAS NOTAMED AS CLOSED WITH HVY WORK ON THE RWY.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW88LA010
Event ID
20001213X32330
Case number
FTW88LA010
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: 82f00c001d7f2b2588aa19440256adeb56583300822dd49f16f3cb737eb0eee4; retrieved 2026-09-23T11:46:33.452Z.