LAX94LA224 · Cessna 152
Tradewinds Aviation Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA224
- 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
- 0
- 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 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N93069
- Operator
- Tradewinds Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), San Jose, CA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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 · roll/run
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE 37-HOUR STUDENT PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING TO TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 32 WITH ABOUT A 30-DEGREE 15-KNOT LEFT CROSSWIND. THE PILOT SAID HE LOST DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AS THE AIRCRAFT LIFTED OFF AND IT VEERED OFF THE RUNWAY TO THE LEFT. THE PILOT DECIDED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF AND LANDED ON A TAXIWAY PARALLEL AND ADJACENT TO THE RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT CONTINUED TO VEER LEFT, DEPARTED THE PAVEMENT, AND WENT INTO A WEED COVERED FIELD. BEFORE THE PILOT COULD STOP THE AIRCRAFT, IT ENCOUNTERED A DITCH. THE STUDENT'S FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR LANDED AT THE LOS BANOS AIRPORT WITH ANOTHER STUDENT ON A DUAL CROSS-COUNTRY ABOUT 1 HOUR BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR SAID THE WINDS AT THE TIME WERE FROM THE WEST-NORTHWEST GUSTING TO 20 KNOTS. HE AND THE SECOND STUDENT DEPARTED ABOUT 10 MINUTES PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, AND THE WINDS WERE FROM THE WEST-NORTHWEST AT 15 TO 17 KNOTS. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT THE STUDENT PILOT WHO HAD THE ACCIDENT HAD EXPERIENCED AND HANDLED SIMILAR WIND CONDITIONS ON PRIOR DUAL FLIGHTS WITHOUT DIFFICULTY.
Probable cause
the student pilot's inadequate compensation for the existing crosswind conditions and his resultant loss of directional control. A factor in the accident was the student's lack of total flight experience.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA224
- Event ID
- 20001206X01328
- Case number
- LAX94LA224
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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: cca765e6d3608c0f68e0c88f0ee91db8a2e3e5337437fd7a654c7c19431882dd; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:04:59.253Z.