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ERA20CA307

2020-09-03 · Morrisville, Vermont, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport MVL

Current FAA registration · N170JS

Make / Model
CESSNA 150C
Year of manufacture
1962 · 58 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR 0-200 SERIES (100 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19621013
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A11A06

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control and subsequent exceedance of the airplane's critical angle of attack during takeoff, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and collision with terrain.

Factual narrative

According to the right seat pilot/owner of the tailwheel-equipped airplane, she was demonstrating a short field takeoff to the passenger on a grass area adjacent to the airport’s single paved runway. After adding power and releasing the brakes, the airplane veered to the left toward a ditch between the grass area and the paved runway. The pilot attempted to steer away from the ditch by applying rudder control inputs but was unsuccessful. As the airplane approached the ditch she elected to rotate. The airplane briefly became airborne then stalled and impacted terrain. The pilot and the passenger were seriously injured and the airplane’s fuselage and both wings were substantially damaged. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Capability exceeded

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_ERA20CA307.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers