ATL04CA127 · Cessna 150
Cessna 150 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Decatur, AL (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04CA127
- 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 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
- N10424
- Operator
- Clifford Lamar Collins
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Decatur, AL (private airstrip)To 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
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he took off from the private grass airstrip with the intention of "buzzing" a friend's property. He stated that after he located the property and observed people outside, he turned the airplane around to begin maneuvering to a lower altitude. He stated that at about 1500 feet mean sea level, he began a descent over a field in the general direction of the property. He said he saw the power lines a short time and distance later, and he advanced the throttle to full power and pulled up on the yoke. He stated that the engine did not produce an immediate response. The airplane collided with the power lines 50 feet above ground level and a subsequent forced landing was attempted in a nearby field. Examination of the airplane wreckage revealed that the firewall sustained extensive damage, the windscreen was broken from mounts, both wings incurred spar and rib damage, the fuselage and tail were buckled and bent, and the nose gear was torn from the fuselage.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain obstacle clearance, which resulted in collision with utility wires.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL04CA127
- Event ID
- 20040707X00913
- Case number
- ATL04CA127
- 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: a25fd232f88561013249cde5f0ada1f3e9d4a0c2140619393945b5bfd9aa6ffe; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:13:36.631Z.