WPR10FA326 · Cessna 150 J
Cessna 150 J · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) during initial climb
From Keller, WA (no airport) to Keller, WA (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10FA326
- 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
- 1 · 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 J
- 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
- N1053M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Keller, WA (no airport)To Keller, WA (no airport)
- 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The passenger reported that this was his first flight in an airplane and that the purpose of the flight was to spot cattle in the local area. The passenger stated that prior to taking off the pilot walked around the airplane, then assisted him in getting in the airplane and fastening his seatbelt. The passenger added that, after he boarded the airplane, the pilot went through the checklist and then taxied to the north end of the airstrip. During the taxi the pilot commented to the passenger that it was nice, cool and calm, and that they should not have any problem. The passenger said that they were soon in the air and he felt a jolt, followed by a right bank and the nose going straight down. The passenger did not remember hitting power lines or striking the ground. A postaccident examination revealed that the airplane had impacted near the top of an 85-foot-tall tree about 330 feet from the south end of the departure runway before descending and striking power lines and impacting the ground. A review of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records for the pilot revealed that the student pilot did not possess a valid FAA medical certificate. A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from obstacles during the initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10FA326
- Event ID
- 20100706X30130
- Case number
- WPR10FA326
- 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: b8f4aaf386b4a538c8d21d3a90f7e3c2a8d3cc17c07e3a1be00e2ab30303d3fb; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:56:06.282Z.