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ATL93LA045 · Cessna 152

1 Jan 1993 · Fuquay-Varina, NC, United States

Ron'S Aircraft Service Cessna 152 · Accident: undershoot on approach

From Grand Strand Airport (CRE) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ATL93LA045
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
N714XN
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Grand Strand Airport (CRE), N. MYRTLE BEACH, SCTo 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 final
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
Undershoot
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

  • Flight instructor(on ground) › Judgment, poor
  • Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE STUDENT PILOT HAD PLANNED A SOLO CROSS COUNTRY IN PREPARATION FOR THE PRIVATE PILOT CERTIFICATE. WHEN HE REACHED HIS FIRST DESTINATION AIRPORT, HE COULD NOT OBTAIN FUEL BECAUSE OF THE NEW YEARS HOLIDAY. HE FLEW TO ANOTHER NEARBY AIRPORT, AND HE COULD NOT OBTAIN FUEL THERE EITHER. FINALLY HE WAS ABLE TO LOCATE AN OPEN FBO AND PROCEEDED THERE FOR FUEL. HE INFORMED HIS INSTRUCTOR VIA TELEPHONE THAT HE HAD BEEN DELAYED AND ASKED FOR SOMEONE TO FLY DOWN AND PICK HIM UP, SINCE HE MIGHT NOT MAKE IT BACK PRIOR TO SUNSET. THE INSTRUCTOR TOLD HIM TO FUEL THE AIRPLANE AND RETURN HOME. DURING THE RETURN LEG, IT BECAME DARK. WHILE ESTABLISHED ON FINAL APPROACH FOR LANDING, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES LOCATED UNDER THE FINAL APPROACH COURSE. THE PILOT LATER REPORTED THAT HE NEVER SAW THE TREES, AND HE FAILED TO UTILIZE THE AIRCRAFT LANDING LIGHT. THE PILOT HAD A TOTAL FLIGHT TIME OF 57 HOURS, INCLUDING 3 AT HOURS AT NIGHT. HIS PREVIOUS NIGHT FLIGHT WAS FLOWN 5 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.

Probable cause

THE POOR JUDGEMENT OF THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR IN ALLOWING HIS STUDENT TO RETURN FROM A CROSS COUNTRY AT NIGHT, AND THE STUDENT PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER ALTITUDE ON FINAL APPROACH. FACTORS WERE THE DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS, THE TREES BELOW THE FINAL APPROACH PATH, THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO UTILIZE THE AIRCRAFT LANDING LIGHT, AND THE STUDENT PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN NIGHT FLYING.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL93LA045
Event ID
20001211X11645
Case number
ATL93LA045
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: 875f8d66579329809668b6c7ab11dfc2475fc29221cf8293ae325cf9660a8888; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:03:48.104Z.