LAX92LA148 · Cessna 150M
Buchanan Flying Club Cessna 150M · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Buchanan Field (CCR) to Columbia Airport (O22)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA148
- 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 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
- N2869V
- Operator
- Buchanan Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, CATo Columbia Airport (O22), Columbia, CA
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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) › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON A DUAL CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT THE CFI RETARDED THE THROTTLE TO SIMULATE AN ENGINE FAILURE. THE STUDENT PILOT EXECUTED THE EMERGENCY CHECKLIST AND SELECTED A PRIVATELY OWNED 1500 FT BY 50 FT DIRT AIRSTRIP. THE AIRPLANE WAS TOO HIGH WHEN IT APPROACHED THE AIRSTRIP AND THE STUDENT APPLIED FULL FLAPS. THE AIRPLANE WAS STILL TOO HIGH WHEN IT ARRIVED OVER THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY. THE CFI ASSUMED THE CONTROLS AND IMMEDIATELY EXECUTED A SHARP LEFT 360 DEGREE OVERHEAD BANKING MANEUVER TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THE LANDING COULD STILL BE MADE. WHEN THE AIRPLANE ROLLED OUT IT WAS NEAR THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE CFI APPLIED FULL POWER AND THE STUDENT REMINDED THE CFI THAT THE FLAPS WERE FULLY EXTENDED. THE CFI RAISED THE FLAPS BUT WITHIN SECONDS THE AIRPLANE CRASHED BEYOND THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY.
Probable cause
THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S POOR INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY PERFORMING A 360 DEGREE TURN MANEUVER AT A LOW ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA148
- Event ID
- 20001211X14323
- Case number
- LAX92LA148
- 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: 6ce204c675b6c2cd1ecc927ba990fb2378b6525ee49fafc3e37cf7942d8e760d; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:19:38.232Z.