LAX89LA150 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA150
- 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 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 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
- N248ER
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Elevator trim, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Prescott, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PLT WAS ON HIS 1ST UNSUPERVISED SOLO FLT & WAS MAKING TOUCH-&-GO LANDINGS IN THE LOCAL PATTERN. AFTER THE 2ND LANDING, HE RETRACTED THE FLAPS, APPLIED FULL POWER & MOVED THE CARBURETOR HEAT TO OFF. HE RPRTD THAT AFTER BECOMING AIRBORNE, HE ENCOUNTERED 'HARSH BACK PRESSURE' & TRIED TO TRIM, BUT THE TRIM DID NOT HELP. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT NOSED DOWN, CONTACTED THE RUNWAY & BEGAN PORPOISING. THE PLT 'PULLED' THE POWER & STOPPED THE ACFT, BUT THE PROP, NOSE GEAR & FIREWALL WERE DAMAGED DRG THE OCCURRENCE. DRG AN INVESTIGATION, THE ELEVATOR TRIM WAS FOUND IN A 'NOSE DOWN'POSITION & THE TRIM TAB WAS FOUND DISPLACED 1.5 INCHES FROM NEUTRAL. NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE WAS REPORTED.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE OF THE ELEVATOR FLIGHT CONTROL BY THE PILOT AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER RATE OF CLIMB AFTER LIFT-OFF. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: IMPROPER USE OF ELEVATOR TRIM BY THE PILOT, HIS LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE, AND AN INADVERTENT PORPOISE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA150
- Event ID
- 20001213X28117
- Case number
- LAX89LA150
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-04-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6761aebec04a9ed8425c79ddfc7797544b1af46154aa5db1e634e0f94d8c5966; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:44:13.305Z.