MKC89FA107 · Cessna 152
Wing'S Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Saint Paul Downtown Holman Field (STP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89FA107
- 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
- N5357Q
- Operator
- Wing'S
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Saint Paul Downtown Holman Field (STP), ST PAUL, MNTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER THE PLT & AN ACQUAINTANCE TOOK OFF ON A LOCAL FLT, WITNESSES OBSERVED THE ACFT FLYING LOW OVER THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. ACCORDING TO A WITNESS, THE ACFT'S WHEELS TOUCHED THE WATER AT ONE POINT. THE ACFT WAS THEN OBSERVED TO CLIMB & BEGIN CIRCLING A CHEMICAL PLANT, NEAR THE RIVER, WHERE PRODUCTION LIGHTING WAS BEING USED TO FILM A DOCUMENTARY AT DUSK. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT ENTERED A NOSE LOW ATTITUDE & CRASHED IN A NEARBY WOODED AREA ON THE RIVER BLUFF. A SHORT TIME AFTER THE ACDNT, MEDICAL PERSONNEL ARRIVED & PROVIDED ASSISTANCE. DRG AN INVESTIGATION, NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM OF THE ACFT OR ENG WAS FOUND. AS THE OCCUPANTS WERE BEING REMOVED FROM THE ACDNT SITE, THE ODOR OF ALCOHOL WAS NOTED. TOXICOLOGY CHECKS SHOWED THE PLT HAD A BLOOD/ALCOHOL LVL OF 0.143% (143 MG/DL) & THE PASSENGER HAD A BLOOD/ALCOHOL OF 0.186% (186 MG/DL).
Probable cause
POOR JUDGEMENT OF THE PILOT BY FLYING WHILE PHYSICALLY IMPAIRED FROM CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL; AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHILE MANEUVERING, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AND COLLISION WITH WOODED/HILLY TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89FA107
- Event ID
- 20001213X28394
- Case number
- MKC89FA107
- 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 1989-05-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: afb2dcdcfb37c0a659855d9bfa681d9d5bb9d3bdf794ae55faf5043eaa1a8217; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:55:34.444Z.