MIA05LA019 · Scottish Aviation Bulldog 120/121
Scottish Aviation Bulldog 120/121 · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Newnan Coweta County Airport (CCO) to Jacksonville Naval Air Station (Towers Field) (KNIP)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA05LA019
- 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
Scottish Aviation Bulldog 120/121
- Aircraft type
- Scottish BULLDOG 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
- N556WH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newnan Coweta County Airport (CCO), Newnan, GATo Jacksonville Naval Air Station (Towers Field) (KNIP), Jacksonville, FL
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that before departure both fuel tanks were filled and after takeoff, the flight proceeded towards the destination airport though deviation to maintain visual flight rules was necessary. After flying over the Okefenokee Swamp which is located in the southeastern portion of Georgia, he reported losing several hundred feet of altitude while looking down to confirm a radio frequency, then looked up and observed trees. He applied aft elevator control input, added power to climb, then felt impact with several trees. He then climbed and flew in a southerly direction to avoid entering Jacksonville's airspace, and after verifying the airplane was controllable, he established contact with Jacksonville Approach Control and declared an emergency. The flight was vectored to the Jacksonville International Airport where after touchdown, the right main landing gear collapsed. Examination of the airplane revealed the leading edges of both wings exhibited semi-circular indentations. Additionally, the inboard drain for the left fuel tank was separated. The right wing fuel tank was drained and found to contain 2 quarts of fuel; the fuel selector was found positioned to the right tank position. The leading edge of the right main landing gear was noted to have impact damage; tree bark was noted in the damaged area of the gear.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain altitude/clearance with trees resulting in the in-flight collision with a tree, damage to the right main landing gear, and subsequent collapse of the right main landing gear during the emergency landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA05LA019
- Event ID
- 20041110X01798
- Case number
- MIA05LA019
- 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: d83f605864e8f67e846d321600410b383389fe8cb29543e8b41934e2ebf39731; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:34:11.480Z.