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CHI89LA090 · Cessna 150 L

16 May 1989 · EUREKA, MI, United States

Cessna 150 L · Accident: overrun during takeoff

From Randolph's Landing Area Airport (61G) to Capital Region International Airport (LAN)

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Event

NTSB case
CHI89LA090
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 150 L

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
N7531G
Operator
Swanson, Daniel J. · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Randolph's Landing Area Airport (61G), EUREKA, MITo Capital Region International Airport (LAN), Lansing, MI
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 · rejected takeoff
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
Overrun
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

  • Distance › Inadequate
  • Dual student › Aircraft handling, improper
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Eureka, MI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

DURING A PRE-CHECKRIDE REVIEW FLIGHT, THE STUDENT PILOT WAS INSTRUCTED TO DEMONSTRATE A SHORT FIELD TAKEOFF ON A 1,640' X 100' SOD AIRSTRIP. THE STUDENT PILOT STARTED TO ROTATE WHEN THE AIRCRAFT REACHED 55 MPH AND AN ESTIMATED 3/4 WAY DOWN THE RUNWAY, AND WAS ADVISED BY THE CFI TO WAIT UNTIL 60 MPH WAS ATTAINED BEFORE ROTATION. THE STUDENT PILOT RESPONDED BY ABORTING THE TAKEOFF, REDUCING POWER AND APPLYING BRAKES. THE CFI TOOK OVER THE CONTROLS AND APPLIED 'HARD' BRAKES, HOWEVER NEITHER PILOT WAS ABLE TO STOP THE AIRCRAFT BEFORE IT RAN OFF THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A DITCH AND NOSED OVER.

Probable cause

STUDENT PILOT'S IMPROPER AIRCRAFT CONTROL DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, AND THE SUBSEQUENT ABORTED TAKEOFF WAS PERFORMED WITH INSUFFICIENT RUNWAY REMAINING TO SUCCESSFULLY STOP THE AIRCRAFT BEFORE THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI89LA090
Event ID
20001213X28271
Case number
CHI89LA090
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: 08af01636c82ded9e302a9469547b65a73de7fd3aff97f5afbd4d2e032f813ba; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:36:59.373Z.