IAD98LA041 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Schenectady County Airport (SCH) to Bradley International Airport (BDL)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD98LA041
- 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
- N5357H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Schenectady County Airport (SCH), Schenectady, NYTo Bradley International Airport (BDL)
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Distance, inattentive
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Windsor Locks, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The certificated student pilot on his second solo cross country flight landed at the unfamiliar airport and requested progressive taxi instructions. The student piloted turned onto the taxiway leading to the general aviation area. A linesman and another airplane waited for the student pilot to pass at the throat of the ramp. The linesman motioned for the student pilot to taxi straight ahead with a left turn in front of parked airplanes. After completion of the left turn, the linesman pointed the student pilot to a second linesman who was positioned at the student pilot's 11 o'clock. With his back pointed towards the student pilot and looking over his right shoulder, the second linesman reported that his left hand was up in the air and his right hand was pointing to the ground in front. The student pilot stated that he thought that the linesman wanted him to taxi straight ahead and to stop adjacent to two parked airplanes. While taxiing straight ahead and focused on the second linesman, the student pilot did not see the fuel truck parked to his right. The wing tip struck the mirror of the fuel truck, cracking the right rear spar.
Probable cause
The student pilot's inattention during taxi, which resulted in the collision with a fuel truck.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD98LA041
- Event ID
- 20001211X09695
- Case number
- IAD98LA041
- 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: 3ed10b78e311826b5371ed50dd69f1b99e7e89eb05b8d81d49868d29616a624f; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:55:36.883Z.