LAX96FA080 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM) to Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96FA080
- 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
- N6110Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Compton Woodley Airport (CPM)To Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, static
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, push rod › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instructor experienced a sudden reduction in engine rpm during climb out. After checking the engine and electrical systems, he took the controls and made a forced landing to a dry flood control canal. His attempts to advance the throttle resulted in a further loss of power. During the last portion of the approach he saw utility lines and attempted to avoid them but the aircraft struck an overhead cable. Witnesses heard popping sounds and saw smoke trailing the aircraft. An examination of the engine revealed a broken exhaust push rod. An examination found the push rod failed due to the manufacturing process in which it was artificially aged. This process made the push rod susceptible to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) with a lower stress threshold. The ASM handbook states that the preferred method is to maintain the material at the aging temperature for a longer period of time. The interference pins that are inserted in the ends of the push rod most likely produced hoop stress at a level sufficient to initiate SCC once the push rod is exposed to an environment of humid and/or salty air. SCC most likely began after manufacture, but before the push rod was placed into service during a period in which it was exposed to adverse environmental conditions.
Probable cause
a push rod failed from fatigue as a result of longitudinal stress corrosion cracking.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96FA080
- Event ID
- 20001207X05020
- Case number
- LAX96FA080
- 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: 0b5a678c610b9342b8cec2b962f5e919252098d0ac334a16c779b46c196890e2; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:59:21.415Z.