ATL06FA078 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From 84A · Cumming, GA to 84A · Cumming, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL06FA078
- 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
- 2 · 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 150L
- 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
- N1715Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 84A · Cumming, GATo 84A · Cumming, GA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flaps, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Performance data, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness at the airport stated that on the morning of the accident he had spoken with the pilot for about 10 minutes, and watched as the pilot and passenger conducted a preflight inspection of the airplane. After the preflight inspection, the pilot taxied to the fuel pumps, where he topped off both fuel tanks. The witness reported that the pilot had the flaps extended between "5 and 10 degrees" prior to takeoff. The pilot taxied to runway 21, did an engine run-up, and began the takeoff roll. The witness noted that the takeoff roll was much longer than he expected, and the airplane did not rotate and climb until it reached the end of the runway. He said the airplane was in a climb attitude, and the airspeed appeared to be slow. According to the witness, "the airplane just failed to climb." He watched as the airplane reached an altitude of approximately 50 feet, and appeared that it was not going to clear the hill and trees directly off the end of the runway. The airplane then "drifted to the left through a low spot in the tree cover on the southwest boundary of the airport." Shortly thereafter, the witness heard sounds of emergency vehicles. The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office responded to the crash and located the airplane inverted, resting against a house in a residential subdivision, approximately 1/4 mile west of the airport. Inspection of the airplane disclosed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical anomalies. Review of the performance data in the Cessna Owners Manual revealed that at gross weight, at the calculated density altitude of approximately 1,400 feet, the airplane would require approximately 1,539 feet to clear a 50-foot obstacle using zero degrees of flaps on a level runway. Zero degrees of flaps is recommended for a short field takeoff, and no performance charts are available for takeoff with 5 or 10 degrees. Weight and balance calculations of the airplane with both occupants and full fuel, disclosed that the airplane was approximately 20 pounds over gross weight.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to consider the appropriate aircraft performance data prior to takeoff, and his improper use of the wing flaps during takeoff, which resulted in reduced climb performance and an in-flight collision with a residence. A factor associated with the accident was the pilot's operation of the airplane at an over gross weight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL06FA078
- Event ID
- 20060519X00588
- Case number
- ATL06FA078
- 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: 0f213b7bf2200f1c45ebb031d0710e4a97ed4e73b96b844a4f275b9c71eee7d4; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:21:07.196Z.