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LAX92LA142 · Cessna A188B

13 Mar 1992 · Corcoran, CA, United States

Divine Aerial Applicators Cessna A188B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
LAX92LA142
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 A188B

Aircraft type
Cessna 188
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
N53241
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 137: Agricultural
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
Utility pole
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

  • Aircraft performance, takeoff capability › Exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, initiated
  • Weather condition › Crosswind
  • Weather condition › Gusts

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

NTSB narrative

ACCORDING TO STATEMENTS FROM BOTH THE PILOT AND HIS GROUND LOADER, THE AIRCRAFT WAS ON THE TAKEOFF GROUND ROLL WHEN A SUDDEN 90 DEGREE CROSSWIND GUST CAUSED THE PILOT TO MOMENTARILY LOOSE DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. THE PILOT RECOVERED CONTROL AND CONTINUED THE TAKEOFF. IMMEDIATELY AFTER LIFT OFF, A SECOND AND STRONGER CROSSWIND GUST BEGAN PUSHING THE AIRCRAFT TO THE RIGHT INTO A LINE OF TELEPHONE POLES PARALLEL TO THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT SAID HE ATTEMPTED TO DUMP THE LOAD OF CHEMICALS IN ORDER TO CLEAR THE POLES BUT THE MECHANISM MOMENTARILY JAMMED AND THE LOAD DID NOT TOTALLY JETTISON. THE RIGHT WING OF THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A TELEPHONE POLE, SHEARING IT OFF. THE AIRCRAFT THEN CRASHED INTO AN ADJACENT SANTA FE RAILROAD RIGHT OF WAY. THE PILOT ESTIMATED THAT THE STEADY STATE CROSSWIND COMPONENT WAS 10 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO 20 KNOTS. CESSNA AIRCRAFT ESTIMATED THAT THE MAXIMUM CROSSWIND COMPONENT CAPABILITY OF THE AIRCRAFT WAS 13 KNOTS. THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT WAS THE THIRD LOAD OF THE DAY.

Probable cause

THE AIRCRAFT'S ENCOUNTER DURING THE TAKEOFF WITH A CROSSWIND GUST BEYOND THE CAPABILITY OF THE AIRCRAFT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX92LA142
Event ID
20001211X14318
Case number
LAX92LA142
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 1992-03-14.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: d79bbbde035d2dab4749237e8ac24bfcc26c94ef641cb2df643f401356f1ed25; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:19:03.304Z.