LAX89LA003 · Cessna 150F
Cessna 150F · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA003
- 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 150F
- 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
- N8681S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR), Goodyear, 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Raising of flaps, premature
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH AN OBSTACLE DURING A GO-AROUND FROM THE RED CREEK PRIVATE DIRT STRIP. THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE HAD NEVER LANDED AT THE 2000 FT, DIRT STRIP AND HAD NO OTHER SHORT OR SOFT FIELD TAKEOFF/LANDING PRACTICE BEYOND HIS INSTRUCTION AT AN 8000 FT PAVED RUNWAY AND PRACTICE TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS AT AN ABANDONED DIRT STRIP IN THE DESERT FOUR DAYS PRIOR TO THE PLANNED FLIGHT. THE PLT GOT TOO LOW ON HIS APRCH. HE COMPENSATED FOR HIS LOW APRCH BY INCREASING HIS ANGLE OF ATTACK. WHEN THE PLT REALIZED THE AIRCRAFT ATTITUDE WAS TOO HIGH AND HIS AIRSPEED TOO LOW, HE INITIATED A GO-AROUND. HE ADDED FULL POWER, MADE A SHALLOW BANK TO THE LEFT, AND RETRACTED 20 DEGREES OF FLAPS. THE A/C LOST THE REMAINING ALT AND COLLIDED WITH A STEEL FENCE POST. THE A/C NOSED OVER ABOUT 30 FT TO THE LEFT OF THE LANDING STRIP AND ABOUT 500 FT PAST THE THRESHOLD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA003
- Event ID
- 20001213X27085
- Case number
- LAX89LA003
- 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: 625110ea7463a919dafdde28cbd7bcb0468a39668077dbf345f169846b6d72eb; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:41:19.422Z.