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LAX93LA304 · Cessna 152

28 Jul 1993 · San Carlos, CA, United States

Palo Alto Flying Club Cessna 152 · Accident: hard landing

From Palo Alto Airport (PAO) to San Carlos Airport (SQL)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX93LA304
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
N69208
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Palo Alto Airport (PAO), Palo Alto, CATo San Carlos Airport (SQL)
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
Hard landing
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

  • Dual student › Recovery from bounced landing, improper
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Lack of total experience in type operation
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Recovery from bounced landing, improper
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

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

NTSB narrative

DURING THE LANDING PHASE OF A TRAINING FLIGHT, THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO SINK RAPIDLY. THE STUDENT PILOT PUSHED FORWARD ON THE ELEVATOR WHICH RESULTED IN A HARD LANDING. DURING THE RECOVERY FROM THE BOUNCED LANDING THE CFI TOOK THE CONTROLS TO CUSHION THE NEXT LANDING. THE CFI SAID SHE DID NOT TELL THE STUDENT SHE HAD THE CONTROLS, THUS IN THE CONFUSION, THE STUDENT PILOT ADDED POWER AND INITIATED A GO-AROUND. THE CFI CONCURRED BUT THE AIRPLANE WAS STILL BOUNCING, AND THE LEFT MAIN WHEEL WAS OFF THE RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE FAILED TO BECOME AIRBORNE DUE TO THE FLAPS STILL BEING SET AT 30 DEGREES. THE CFI THEN DECIDED TO ABORT THE GO-AROUND. THE CFI SAID SHE NOTICED THE FLAP SETTING ABOUT 1/2 WAY DOWN THE RUNWAY. THE CFI ADDED FULL BRAKES AND THE AIRPLANE LEFT THE RUNWAY AND NOSED OVER IN A DITCH. THE CFI HAD 65 TOTAL HOURS OF FLIGHT INSTRUCTION EXPERIENCE.

Probable cause

THE CFI'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT, THE IMPROPER RECOVERY FROM THE BOUNCED LANDING BY THE CREW, AND THE LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN GIVING DUAL INSTRUCTION BY THE CFI. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ACCIDENT WERE: THE DUAL STUDENT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS, THE CFI'S FAILURE TO ISSUE PROCEDURES/DIRECTIVES TO THE STUDENT, AND THE CFI'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX93LA304
Event ID
20001211X12963
Case number
LAX93LA304
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: ed99fc0f2ed60632a4abac4f1fdad63a24ce4b9b6713bebf4570f2930c63f584; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:49:29.262Z.