LAX92LA124 · Cessna 150
Veda Cessna 150 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA124
- 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 150
- 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
- N126NK
- Operator
- Veda
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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/spin
- 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 › Stall/spin, inadvertent
- Pilot in command(cfi) › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Proper touchdown point, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 150 CRASHED AFTER EXPERIENCING AN IN FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL. DURING THE INITIAL TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 31R THE CFI TRANSMITTED A 'MAY DAY' CALL TO THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER STATING THE AIRPLANE HAD A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE LOCAL CONTROLLER CLEARED THE FLIGHT TO LAND ON ANY RUNWAY. THE PILOT EXECUTED A 180 DEGREE TURN AND LANDED LONG ON RUNWAY 13L. THE CFI THEN ATTEMPTED A GO-AROUND. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE CLIMB TO 50 FEET AND THEN ENTER A RIGHT SKIDDING TURN, STALL, AND SPIN, IMPACTING THE GROUND OUTSIDE OF THE AIRPORT BOUNDARY. THE CFI INDICATED THAT THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE HAD PREVIOUSLY MALFUNCTIONED WITH A STICKING VALVE AND THOUGHT THE VALVE WAS STICKING AGAIN. THE POST ACCIDENT EXAMIATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE NUMBER 4 CYLINDER ROCKER ARM VALVE MALFUNCTIONED AS A RESULT OF A FRACTURED ROCKER ARM SHAFT BOSS.
Probable cause
THAT THE CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S (CFI) MISJUDGED APPROACH WHICH RESULTED IN A LONG LANDING, THE CFI'S IN-FLIGHT DECISION TO A GO-AROUND WITH PARTIAL POWER, AND THE FAILURE OF THE CFI TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL IN THE INITIAL CLIMB SEGMENT OF THE PARTIAL POWER GO-AROUND RESULTING IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE INSPECTION PERFORMED BY THE OPERATOR'S MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL AFTER THE INITIAL STUCK VALVE DEFICIENCY AND THE DECISION OF THE CFI TO OPERATE THE AIRPLANE WITH A KNOWN DISCREPANCY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA124
- Event ID
- 20001211X14138
- Case number
- LAX92LA124
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-02-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: afb8fa97174a4955f04b7ab126d7443ab13ee21e3b90f2190fcd4cee46a96cfa; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:20:43.182Z.