ERA09LA459 · Cessna 150 H
Royal Flying Club Cessna 150 H · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) during initial climb
From Sussex Airport (FWN) to Sussex Airport (FWN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA459
- 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 H
- 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
- N6676S
- Operator
- Royal Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sussex Airport (FWN), Sussex, NJTo Sussex Airport (FWN), Sussex, NJ
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Following the takeoff, the airplane was slow to climb and clipped treetops beyond the end of the runway. The pilot then pulled back on the yoke and stalled the airplane. Examination of the engine did not reveal any abnormalities that would have precluded normal operation or the production of rated horsepower. Examination of the airframe and flight control system components revealed no evidence of preimpact mechanical failure or malfunction. According to weight calculations, the airplane was 24 pounds over maximum gross weight. Airplane climb capability was further compromised with the center of gravity located forward of the forward limit.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper pre-flight planning and take off over gross weight limits.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA459
- Event ID
- 20090811X25902
- Case number
- ERA09LA459
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 0dded3806fcb49ac811da314ccc620772f770277764ed444e409394a3f780843; retrieved 2026-09-15T12:47:12.378Z.