ERA15LA165 · Cessna 150 F
M Air Zedt Cessna 150 F · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Grass Roots Airpark (06FD) to Kissimmee Gateway Airport (ISM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15LA165
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 150 F
- 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
- N8254S
- Operator
- M Air Zedt
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grass Roots Airpark (06FD), Masscotte, FLTo Kissimmee Gateway Airport (ISM), Kissimmee, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 50 years (built 1965)
- 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
- Landing
- 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 during takeoff/landing
- 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 power plant
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The noninstrument-rated private pilot reported that he took off in the airplane and that the engine lost power about 1,500 ft above ground level. He subsequently conducted a forced landing in woods about 1/2 mile from the airport, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage, empennage, and both wings. Witnesses reported hearing the airplane depart the airport but not seeing it because the visibility was limited due to fog in the area.
Following the accident, a witness talked to the pilot. He stated that the pilot told him that, after the airplane departed the airport, the engine "sputtered, came back up, and then quit." Further, the pilot reported to a local mechanic that he did not use carburetor heat during the flight. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane, and a postaccident engine examination revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the engine had been operating on automotive gasoline.
Weather conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to the accumulation of serious carburetor icing at glide power, and carburetor icing is more likely to form when an engine is operating on automotive gasoline. Further, the pilot reported that the engine "sputtered," which is consistent with how an engine sounds when carburetor ice has accumulated, and that he did not use carburetor heat during the approximate 15-minute flight. Therefore, it is likely that the airplane lost total engine power due to carburetor icing.
Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed near the accident site at the time of the accident, and visibility was about 1/4 mile due to fog. Further, the airport was surrounded by farmland and pastures, and the airplane impacted a stand of trees. Therefore, it is likely that the weather conditions precluded the pilot from being able to locate a suitable emergency landing area.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to use carburetor heat during the flight while operating in conditions conducive to carburetor icing, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to carburetor icing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's decision to take off in low visibility conditions, which precluded him from being able to locate a suitable emergency landing area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15LA165
- Event ID
- 20150323X84243
- Case number
- ERA15LA165
- 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: bfa229a20607a15adac82af5def36fa2668fee18d5a5d8d78be9eb10e176ea20; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:10:31.976Z.