FTW85FA261 · Cessna 150
Cessna 150 and Cessna 152 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA261
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 150
- 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
- N8496J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skylark Field (ILE), Killeen, TXTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N48891
- Operator
- J. R. Voyles · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skylark Field (ILE), Killeen, TXTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Comm/nav equipment › Improper
- Comm/nav equipment › Lack of
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, performed
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Radio communications, not possible
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual/aural perception
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A MIDAIR COLLISION OCCURRED BETWEEN A CESSNA 150 IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AND A CESSNA 152 ON A LONG LOW FINAL TO THE SAME RUNWAY. THE CESSNA 152'S RADIO WAS MISTUNED, AND THE CESSNA 150 HAD NO RADIO INSTALLED. NEITHER COULD HAVE HEARD WARNINGS BROADCAST BY ANOTHER AIRCRAFT. AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, THE CESSNA 152 CAME BETWEEN THE CESSNA 150 AND THE SUN DURING THE LAST MINUTE OF THE FLIGHT. THE CESSNA 150 WAS HIDDEN FROM THE CESSNA 152'S PILOT'S VIEW BY THE LEFT WING. NO OBSTRUCTION WAS FOUND TO ACCOUNT FOR EITHER AIRCRAFT NOT SEEING AND AVOIDING THE OTHER PRIOR TO THOSE POSITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA261
- Event ID
- 20001214X36776
- Case number
- FTW85FA261
- 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: d4bc4e4684bb6b7c512d5fa668dad33cf5ecde25cce4f892deb6b3a5dba5d748; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:58:11.539Z.