FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

LAX92FA331 · Cessna 152

3 Aug 1992 · Maricopa, AZ, United States

Cessna 152 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering

From Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU) to GEU

Show on map Search Wikipedia NTSB source dataset
Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
LAX92FA331
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
1 · 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
N49016
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZTo GEU
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
Airframe, component or system failure
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 › Airspeed(va), exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
  • Wing, bracing strut › Overload

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Maricopa, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THERE WERE NO EYE WITNESSES'S TO THE ACCIDENT. ACCORDING TO THE OPERATOR, THE PILOT RENTED THE AIRPLANE TO PRACTICE GROUND REFERENCE MANEUVERS IN THE SOUTH PRACTICE AREA. THE WEATHER WAS VMC, AND OTHER PILOTS FLYING IN THE VICINITY REPORTED NO SIGNIFICANT WEATHER PHENOMONA. TWELVE MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT AT THE PILOTS THIRD CLASS MEDICAL CERTIFICATE RENEWAL HE REPORTED 480 TOTAL FLIGHT HOURS WITH NO HOURS IN THE PRECEEDING SIX MONTHS. ACCORDING TO FLIGHT SCHOOL RECORDS HE RECIEVED ABOUT 2.7 HOURS AFTER HIS MEDICAL, OF DUAL INSTRUCTION AND A BIENNIAL FLIGHT REVIEW. THE PILOT THEN FLEW SOLO THROUGH JULY 7, 1992, FOR ABOUT 8.7 HOURS. ACCORDING TO THE METALLURGIST'S FACTUAL REPORT, THE WINGS LOWER STRUT ATTATCH POINTS FAILED DUE TO OVERSTRESS. CESSNA AIRCRAFT TESTED A 150K FUSELAGE DURING CERTIFICATION WORK ON THE A152 MODEL AND FOUND THAT THE LOWER LIFT STRUT ATTATCH FITTING FAILED AT 8.28 G'S. ENGINEERS CALCULATED THAT AN AIRSPEED OF 153.2 MPH WAS REQUIRED AT GROSS WEIGHT TO GENERATE THE 8.28 G LOAD WHICH CAUSED THE STRUT ATTATCH FAILURE. MANEUVERING SPEED FOR THE AIRCRAFT IS 103 MPH.

Probable cause

THE PILOT EXCEEDED THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRPLANE STRUCTURE BY ATTEMPTING AN ABRUPT MANEUVER AT A SPEED IN EXCESS OF THE MANEUVERING SPEED.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX92FA331
Event ID
20001211X15427
Case number
LAX92FA331
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: 9cc170280da45d33b5391937eab83c771a4f439f1241e9bc2a41076bc86db1e8; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:00:39.195Z.