LAX92LA045 · Cessna 152
Sawyer Aviation Cessna 152 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA045
- 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 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
- N5552M
- Operator
- Sawyer Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Maricopa, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON A DUAL INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT THE CFI RETARDED THE THROTTLE AND INSTRUCTED THE STUDENT TO SPIRAL OVER THE PRIVATELY OWNED AIRPORT AND EXECUTE A SIMULATED ENGINE OUT EMERGENCY LANDING. THE STUDENT EXECUTED TWO 360 DEGREE TURNS, CLEARING THE ENGINE AFTER EACH TURN. WHEN THE STUDENT ROLLED OUT ON FINAL APPROACH THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT ALIGNED TOWARDS THE RUNWAY AND ITS ALTITUDE WAS TOO HIGH. THE CFI DIRECTED THE STUDENT TO GO AROUND. WHEN THE STUDENT APPLIED FULL POWER, THE ENGINE FALTERED AND THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. CONDITIONS CONDUCIVE TO SERIOUS GLIDE POWER CARBURETOR ICING EXISTED AT THE TIME.
Probable cause
THE CFI'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION AND HIS DELAYED REMEDIAL ACTION. A FACTOR WAS CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA045
- Event ID
- 20001212X18475
- Case number
- LAX92LA045
- 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: 9f2de34e9694f5ba36edcc384ce84fe109e9a517229ff73e6293f4b6f4566a5b; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:32:34.566Z.