FTW89FA132 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89FA132
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N49056
- 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
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A STUDENT PLT WITH ONLY ABOUT 14 HRS OF FLT TIME TOOK THE ACFT AT NIGHT WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION & DEPD ON A FLT. THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED MANUEVERING AT LOW ALT IN THE SURROUNDING AREA, THEN THE PLT RTRND TO THE ARPT. RPRTDLY, THE PLT BOUNCED THE ACFT ON THE RWY SVRL TIMES, WHILE ATTEMPTING TO LAND. SUBSEQUENTLY, WHILE MANEUVERING IN AN APPARENT ATTEMPT TO LAND, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A TRANSMISSION LINE & CRASHED. TOXICOLOGY TESTS SHOWED THE PLT HAD A BLOOD/ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.34 GM% (0.34%); HIS URINE TESTED POSITIVE FOR CANNABINOIDS. A TAXICAB DRIVER, WHO DELIVERED THE PLT TO THE ARPT, SAID HE (THE PLT) SMELLED OF ALCOHOL & HAD A BEER IN HIS POSSESSION.
Probable cause
POOR JUDGEMENT OF THE PILOT, DUE TO IMPAIRMENT FROM CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE WHILE MANEUVERING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, THE PILOT'S RECENT USE OF DRUGS, AND HIS LACK OF FLIGHT EXPERIENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89FA132
- Event ID
- 20001213X28827
- Case number
- FTW89FA132
- 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: 1e53e94ec95bac3a763aa44166d9e43d4b94ec2fa764f340d99f77c31cd7526b; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:14:31.868Z.