ATL86LA151 · Cessna 120
Cessna 120 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From I98 · Elizabethtown, KY to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86LA151
- 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 120
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 120
- 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
- N76730
- Operator
- Phillip B. Johnson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From I98 · Elizabethtown, KYTo 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
- 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
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, not identified
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS USING THE ACFT TO DROP A TOOL TO A MECHANIC FRIEND AND WAS FLYING AT LOW ALT TOWARD RISING TERRAIN TO VERIFY THE LOCATION WHERE THE TOOL FELL. WITNESSES SAID THAT WHEN THE PLT EXITED THE ACFT AFTER THE ACCIDENT HE STATED HE WAS TOO LOW, TOO SLOW, AND THE ENG 'STALLED'. PHOTOS OF THE INSTRUMENT PANEL SHOW THE THROTTLE FULLY RETARDED AND BENT DOWN 90 DEGREES. PHOTOS OF THE ACFT INDICATE LITTLE FORWARD VELOCITY AND EVIDENCE OF A NEAR VERTICAL IMPACT. THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE COULD NOT REMEMBER DETAILS AND THERE WAS NO MECHANICAL FAILURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86LA151
- Event ID
- 20001213X33482
- Case number
- ATL86LA151
- 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: fe81adc10ed4dd7939bee3057e70b452f5cf1e0da18bbba57c3c8fedc5c228e3; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:57:53.851Z.