GAA17CA546 · Cessna 150 E
Cessna 150 E · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Davidson County Executive Airport (EXX) to Davidson County Executive Airport (EXX)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA546
- 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 E
- 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
- N6250T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Davidson County Executive Airport (EXX), Lexington, NCTo Davidson County Executive Airport (EXX), Lexington, NC
- Aircraft age
- About 53 years (built 1964)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, during a time-building, cross-country flight, the airplane had multiple mechanical malfunctions. On the fourth leg of the flight, he departed the airport and noticed that the airplane was low on fuel. He flew to a nearby airport, landed, and added 10 gallons of fuel.
After fueling, the airplane would not start, and the pilot asked maintenance personnel to jump the airplane's battery. Then, during taxi to the runway, he noticed that the "radios and other electronics" were inoperative, but he continued to the runway. During the takeoff roll, he was startled by a loud noise in his headset, which he believed came from the airplane's communication radio. He attempted to assess the problem during the takeoff roll, and the airplane veered off the right side of the runway into the safety area.
After regaining control, he taxied back to the approach end of the runway. He performed a flight control check and an engine power check and departed the airport.
The pilot reported that he then landed at a nontowered airport "to check out the aircraft." He performed another flight control check and an engine run-up but did not exit the airplane "because of the starting issue." The pilot then departed for the destination airport. He reported that he landed the airplane and taxied to parking. He recalled that he performed a postflight check of the airplane, but "other than grass and grass stains [he] did not see any damage."
Later that evening, the airplane's owner informed the pilot that the left wing was damaged.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left-wing spar and aileron.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to take off with known electrical issues, which distracted him and led to a loss of directional control during the takeoff roll.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA546
- Event ID
- 20170920X64857
- Case number
- GAA17CA546
- 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: 859932297b75488e7ad4720e1e01d4036a12edb835ca27d45ec2918ca620ab0c; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:51:53.340Z.