ATL03LA086 · Cessna 150G
Cessna 150G · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Columbus Airport (CSG) to Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL03LA086
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 150G
- 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
- N2938J
- Operator
- Daniel A. Wolcott · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Columbus Airport (CSG), Columbus, GATo Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM), Montgomery, AL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Object › Bird(s)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During cruise flight at 4500 feet mean sea level, the airplane collided with a flock of geese and began to vibrate violently. The pilot made the decision to land the airplane and located a field for landing. Upon initial touchdown on the field, the pilot realized that the field was marshy, and rough, and attempted a go-around. The pilot stated he applied full power, but the airplane struggled to climb as the engine produced "2200 RPM, compared to the normal 2500 takeoff RPM." He noticed a clearing to the left of the airplane, and while turning in the direction of the clearing, the landing gear and left wing clipped the trees. The airplane came to rest on the ground about 30 feet beyond the trees, inverted. The pilot transmitted distress calls over the Columbus Approach frequency and the National Guard frequency. A nearby Air National Guard helicopter was directed to the accident location and airlifted the pilot to a nearby hospital. Examination of the airplane revealed the right and left wing spars were buckled. No mechanical or flight control malfunctions were reported by the pilot prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The in-flight collision with birds that resulted in a partial loss of engine power, and subsequent in-flight collision with trees while maneuvering for an emergency landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL03LA086
- Event ID
- 20030506X00621
- Case number
- ATL03LA086
- 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, coordinates. 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: cf5b433748da67b378b6fa2aab737a501e91699d26a9027beb72404eacd9484c; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:29:58.466Z.