CHI91LA043 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 and Grumman American AA-5A · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91LA043
- 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N48779
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C18 · Frankfort, ILTo Morris Municipal Airport James R. Washburn field (C09), Morris, IL
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Grumman American AA-5A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman American AA-5
- 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
- N26686
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lewis University Airport (LOT), Romeoville, ILTo Lake Lawn Airport (C59), DELEVAN, WI
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
NEAR JOLIET, IL, A CESSNA 152 (N48779) WAS CRUISING ON A SOUTH-SOUTHWESTERLY HEADING AT 3000' MSL AT THE SAME TIME THAT A GRUMMAN AMERICAN AA-5A (N26686) WAS CRUISING ON AN EASTERLY HEADING AT THE SAME ALTITUDE. THE 2 AIRCRAFT CONVERGED AND THE RIGHT WING OF THE AA-5A COLLIDED WITH THE VERTICAL STABILIZER OF THE CESSNA. THOUGH BOTH AIRCRAFT WERE DAMAGED, BOTH CONTINUED FLYING AND WERE LANDED FROM PRECAUTIONARY APPROACHES. THE CESSNA PILOT SAID THAT HE DID NOT SEE THE OTHER AIRCRAFT EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER THE COLLISION. HE SAID THE SUN WAS QUITE BRIGHT AND WAS FAIRLY LOW AT THAT TIME OF THE YEAR. THE AA-5A PILOT SAW THE CESSNA MOMENTS BEFORE IMPACT AND TRIED TO AVOID A COLLISION BY MANEUVERING HIS AIRCRAFT, BUT THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT TIME.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE PILOTS OF BOTH AIRCRAFT, WHICH RESULTED IN THEIR FAILURE TO SEE-AND-AVOID EACH OTHER'S AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91LA043
- Event ID
- 20001212X24740
- Case number
- CHI91LA043
- 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: 6ceee0549e5b73bb1e8572484e1f7bfed04f9dd0409c751d2722fcaa8cb905ca; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:04:37.462Z.