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BFO92FA153 · Cessna 152

20 Sept 1992 · GLOUCESTER, VA, United States

Usaf Langley Aero Club Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From Langley Air Force Base (LFI) to Langley Air Force Base (LFI)

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Event

NTSB case
BFO92FA153
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
N46076
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Langley Air Force Base (LFI), LANGLEY AFB, VATo Langley Air Force Base (LFI)
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
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 › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

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

NTSB narrative

THE 26 HOUR STUDENT PILOT WAS ON HER THIRD SUPERVISED SOLO FLIGHT, THE FIRST OUTSIDE THE AIRPORT TRAFFIC PATTERN. SHE WAS INSTRUCTED TO PRACTICE SEVERAL MANEUVERS, INCLUDING POWER OFF IMMINENT STALLS, WHICH SHE HAD PERFORMED ON A DUAL FLIGHT, EARLIER ON THE ACCIDENT DATE. RADAR DATA SHOWS THE AIRPLANE DOING SEVERAL MANUEVERS, INCLUDING SLOW FLIGHT AT AN AIRSPEED OF ABOUT 65 KNOTS. PRECEDING THE ACCIDENT, THE AIRPLANE WAS AT 2400 FEET MSL AND SLOWED TO 41 KNOTS AIRSPEED. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED 1000 FEET IN ABOUT 12 SECONDS BEFORE RADAR DATA WAS LOST. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED IN A WOODED AREA, STRIKING TREES IN A STEEP DESCENT ANGLE. THE AIRPLANE CAME TO REST INVERTED. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DID NOT DISCLOSE EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. THE FLAPS WERE FULL DOWN.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO RECOVER FROM AN INTENTIONAL STALL, WHICH RESLUTED IN INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH THE GROUND. PILOT INEXPERIENCE IS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record BFO92FA153
Event ID
20001211X15609
Case number
BFO92FA153
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: 8d9c7f63b92c0c2247ecce62217cccf83997958d422f815864599b9506fda878; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:55:33.428Z.