ERA25LA331 · Cessna 150 H
Busy Bees Airways Cessna 150 H and Academy of Aviation Cessna 172 S · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA25LA331
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N22998
- Operator
- Busy Bees Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo South Jersey Regional Airport (KVAY), Mount Holly, NJ
- Aircraft age
- About 57 years (built 1968)
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Ground collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172 S
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N6185U
- Operator
- Academy of Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2008)
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Ground collision
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After receiving taxi instructions from ground control, the Cessna 172, operated by the student pilot, with a flight instructor began taxiing from the tiedown location for departure. About the same time, the pilot of a nearby Cessna 150, also with intention for flight, observed the Cessna 172 taxiing toward his position and, believing the airplane had slowed to allow him to enter the taxiway, pulled forward from his tiedown location. Both airplanes were operating within a non-movement area where air traffic control clearance was not required. The Cessna 150 pilot reported that after moving forward, he briefly glanced at his instruments, which momentarily diverted his attention. When he looked up, he observed the Cessna 172 continuing to taxi toward him and attempted evasive maneuvers, but was unable to avoid a collision. The flight instructor of the Cessna 172 reported that while taxiing, the Cessna 150 pulled out of its parking position unexpectedly and without warning, directly into their path. He applied the brakes; however, the propeller of the Cessna 150 contacted the right wing of the Cessna 172, which resulted in substantial damage to the wing spar. The Cessna 172 flight instructor and the Cessna 150 pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with either airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The Cessna 150 pilot’s decision to taxi in front of an oncoming Cessna 172, which resulted in a ground collision. Contributing to the accident was the Cessna 150 pilot’s momentary distraction, which delayed his recognition of the impending collision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA25LA331
- Event ID
- 20250903200940
- Case number
- ERA25LA331
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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, cause areas. 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: 8ccc4abd8fe85ded205a2cea9f9ff03df0f1f6e6362ee38137cc1b591d914624; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:50:42.440Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. Wrong state; KVAY is South Jersey Regional Airport, Mount Holly, New Jersey.