LAX98FA045 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 and Cessna 172M · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98FA045
- 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
- 1 · 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N757FT
- Operator
- Jean Runner
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gillespie Field (SEE)To not recorded
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172M
- 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
- N9518H
- Operator
- Andy Burr
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gillespie Field (SEE)To not recorded
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A Cessna 152 (C-152)and a Cessna 172 (C-172) collided in mid air while in a closed traffic pattern at Gillepsie Field. A student and flight instructor were aboard the C-152, and a student pilot was the sole occupant of the C-172. The C-172 was cleared to takeoff with instructions to follow the C-152. A third aircraft was also in the traffic pattern at the time. After takeoff, the air traffic controller looked away to check on other traffic but when he looked back, neither aircraft was visible. He made several unsuccessful calls to both the pilots. The student in the C-152 reported that he had turned crosswind as he came abeam of the third aircraft. When he reached pattern altitude, he began his downwind turn. He was trimming the aircraft when he saw the C-172 approaching his position. He banked hard to avoid the aircraft, but felt an impact. The instructor attempted to take the controls and, with both pilots on the controls, they executed an emergency forced landing on a surface street. The aircraft elevator control lost effectiveness and the aircraft landed hard. They did not report any other mechanical abnormalities before or after the collision. Witnesses reported that both aircraft were on a converging flight path. The student pilot in the C-172 was making his second solo flight but had not advised the controller. The controller did not specify that he was number 3 in the pattern. Haze was reported in all quadrants. The Brite radar repeater in the tower cab is not capable of monitoring traffic on the south side of the airport due to terrain height.
Probable cause
The pilot of the other aircraft's failure to recognize and follow the aircraft on the downwind as instructed. Factors influencing this accident were the pilot's failure to see and avoid the other aircraft; the flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the flight; the pilot of the other aircraft's failure to verify the controller's instructions; the altitude limitation of the Brite radar repeater in the tower cab that prevented its use in traffic pattern separation; and the prevailing haze which restricted visibility.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98FA045
- Event ID
- 20001208X09195
- Case number
- LAX98FA045
- 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: fd01becc92a96385aebd6d72bcc8c2a15dea1bce4bce9512deee87b4a4799cd2; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:45:14.949Z.