LAX92FA130 · Cessna 150M
Cessna 150M · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA130
- 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
- 2 · 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 150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N45165
- Operator
- Escalante, Juan N, III · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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(cfi) › Airspeed(vs), not corrected
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Flight controls, not corrected
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 150M COLLIDED WITH LEVEL TERRAIN AFTER EXPERIENCING AN IN FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL. THE AIRPLANE HAD COMPLETED A TOUCH AND GO LANDING AND TAKEOFF. WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS ON THE INITIAL CLIMB PHASE THE LOCAL CONTROLLER INSTRUCTED THE PILOT TO CHANGE THE LANDING RUNWAY. THE FLIGHT WAS INSTRUCTED TO TURN RIGHT PROCEED SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT AND ENTER LEFT TRAFFIC TO LAND ON THE OPPOSITE RUNWAY. TOWER PERSONNEL OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE BETWEEN 200 - 300 FEET AGL WHEN IT ENTERED INTO A LEFT SPIN, DESCENDED UNCONTROLLED AND IMPACTED THE LEVEL TERRAIN NORTH OF THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY. A PILOT WITNESS REPORTED THAT HE FIRST NOTICED THE AIRPLANE CLIMBING AT A UNUSUALLY NOSE-HIGH ATTITUDE ABOUT 100 FT. AGL AND LEVEL OFF MOMENTARILY. ABOUT 10 SECONDS LATER, AT ABOUT 150 FT. AGL, THE AIRPLANE AGAIN ENTERED INTO AN EXTREME NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE, STALLED AND SPUN TO THE LEFT. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS FOUND WITH THE AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
THE CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S IMPROPER SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT TO CORRECT THE STUDENT PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS RESULTING IN AN EXCESSIVE ANGLE OF ATTACK AND FAILURE TO MAINTAIN THE PROPER AIRSPEED. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE INADVERTENT STALL/SPIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA130
- Event ID
- 20001211X14122
- Case number
- LAX92FA130
- 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: f404c3a1a3ea161d99ed3ebd01bb64a3a2ce8f0f27be79976bca0276a804e4ad; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:20:05.494Z.