- Date
- November 18, 1988, 18:36 local (Nov 19, 1988, 00:36 UTC)
- Place
- Fort Worth, TX
- Injuries
- 2 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N63537Cessna 150M
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report June 25, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19881118051319A
- Case key
- 22753
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Failure to the flight instructor and the student pilot to obtain a weather briefing prior to departure, and he flight instructor's failure to observe the deteriorating weather conditions in sufficient time return to the airport prior to instrument meteorological conditons, precluding a safe arrival back at the airport.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The student and instructor departed for a one hour local training flight. During the hour the weather deteriorated to an indefinite three hundred feet, sky obscured with visibility two miles in fog. No weather briefing was obtained prior to departure. The aircraft was observed flying low and slow over a highway just prior to colliding with the upper static line of a power line and crashing inverted onto the west bound two lanes of a highway. No failures or malfunctions of the aircraft were found.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N63537
- Reported as
- Cessna 150M
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15077381
- Airframe hours
- 5,088
- Engine
- Continental O-200-A, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Acme School Of Aeronautics
- Registered owner
- Acme School Of Aeronautics
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · November 5, 1988 · 60 hours before
- Departed
- FTW · Fort Worth, TX
- Destination
- FTW
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 22
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 368 total · 252 in this make and model · 327 as pilot in command · 132 in the last 90 days · 104 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 60° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 2 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 300 ft
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 61 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- FTW, 6 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.