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LAX91LA402 · Cessna 150M

21 Sept 1991 · Buckeye, AZ, United States

Cessna 150M · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route

From Stellar Airpark (P19) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX91LA402
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
N63553
Operator
Joseph B. Dulin · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Stellar Airpark (P19), Chandler, AZTo 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
En route · descent
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

  • Passenger › Control interference, intentional
  • Passenger › Go-around, delayed

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

NTSB narrative

WHEN THE FLT ARRIVED AT ITS DESTINATION AIRPORT, THE PASSENGER, A CFI, SUGGESTED TO THE PIC, A PRIVATE PILOT, THAT HE PRACTICE A SIMULATED ENGINE OUT APPROACH/LANDING. THE PIC THROTTLED BACK THE ENGINE UPON ENTERING THE LEFT DOWNWIND LEG. WHEN ON FINAL APPROACH WITH FULL FLAPS EXTENDED, THE PIC REALIZED THE ACFT WAS TOO HIGH AND BEGAN TO SLIP THE AIRPLANE. WHEN NEARING THE THRESHOLD THE ACFT WAS STILL TOO HIGH AND THE PAX (CFI) ASSUMED THE CONTROLS AND ENTERED A 360 DEGREE TURN. DURING THE TURN THE CFI REALIZED THE AIRPLANE WAS TOO LOW AND APPLIED POWER TO GO AROUND, BUT TO NO AVAIL. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE GROUND AND CARTWHEELED.

Probable cause

THE PASSENGER/CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S POOR JUDGEMENT BY INTERFERING WITH THE PIC AND HIS FAILURE TO EXECUTE A TIMELY GO-AROUND. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE CFI'S MISJUDGMENT OF ALTITUDE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX91LA402
Event ID
20001212X18128
Case number
LAX91LA402
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: 9c3f9f820bf5ee99eff4137e2c77852601a0856724bed3f961fac4b6bb23b232; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:26:12.503Z.