LAX92LA003 · Cessna C-172N
Air One Cessna C-172N · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA003
- 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 C-172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna C-172
- 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
- N3318E
- Operator
- Air One
- 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 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Rudder trim, not corrected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT SAID SHE WAS PRACTICING SOFT FIELD TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS DURING THE SOLO INSTRUCTIONAL SESSION. GROUND WITNESSES AT THE AIRPORT REPORTED THAT THE AIRCRAFT ACHIEVED A VERY STEEP CLIMB ANGLE AFTER ROTATION FOR THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB. THE AIRCRAFT THEN BEGAN DRIFTING TO THE LEFT IN A NOSE HIGH DESCENT ATTITUDE AND THE LEFT WING COLLIDED WITH A TREE ON A GOLF COURSE ADJACENT TO THE AIRPORT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTORS. CONTROL SYSTEM CONTINUITY WAS ESTABLISHED THROUGHOUT THE AIRCRAFT. NO ABNORMAL SYSTEM CONDITIONS WERE NOTED DURING THE EXAMINATION. THE RUDDER TRIM CONTROL WAS FOUND POSITIONED AT ABOUT 50 PERCENT TO THE LEFT.
Probable cause
AN INFLIGHT LOS OF CONTROL DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO CORRECTLY CONFIGURE THE RUDDER TRIM FOR TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA003
- Event ID
- 20001212X18313
- Case number
- LAX92LA003
- 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: 3255452a89026ef30846f63f8c98fb7b30e425c9e3b4a036bf4e54f677a589a7; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:25:17.719Z.