FTW89FA159 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 and Aerospatiale AS-355F-1 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89FA159
- 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
- 3 · 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N24516
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Houma Terrebonne Airport (HUM)To Houma Terrebonne Airport (HUM)
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Aerospatiale AS-355F-1
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-355
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N5796P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Houma Terrebonne Airport (HUM)To No airport
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A STUDENT PLT IN CESSNA 152, N24516, TOOK OFF ON RWY 18 TO PRACTICE TFC PATTERN WORK & PERFORM TOUCH & GO LNDGS. ALSO, AN ATP PLT IN AEROSPATIALE AS-355F-1, N5796P, DEPARTED THE HELICOPTER OPNS AREA AT THE NORTH END OF THE ARPT ON A PSNG FLT TO A HOSPITAL ABOUT 3 MI TO THE NW. THE TOWER HAD CLOSED EARLIER (AT 1800 CDT). SVRL ARPT PSNL WERE ON DUTY (INCLUDING PSNL AT OPERATOR FACILITIES); THOSE INTERVIEWED, DID NOT RECALL HEARING A RADIO ADZY FM EITHER PLT. AT ABOUT 1846 CDT, THE 2 ACFT COLLIDED ABOUT 1.4 MI NW OF THE ARPT AT AN ESTD ALT OF 500 TO 600 FT. WITNESSES RPRTD THAT THE HELICOPTER WAS CLIMBING ON A NW HDG, WHILE THE CESSNA WAS IN LVL FLT. ONE WITNESS THOUGHT THE CESSNA HAD TURNED ONTO A BASE LEG FOR RWY 12. JUST BEFORE IMPACT, THE CESSNA ENTERED AN ABRUPT LEFT CLIMBING TURN & ROLLED OUT OF THE TURN SLIGHTLY ABV & TO THE RGT OF THE HELICOPTER. SUBSEQUENTLY, THEY CONVERGED & THE HELICOPTER'S MAIN ROTOR BLADES STRUCK THE LEFT SIDE OF THE CESSNA, THEN BOTH CRASHED. THE HELICOPTER WAS NOT OBSERVED TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTN.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF BOTH PILOTS TO SEE-AND-AVOID EACH OTHER'S AIRCRAFT (INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT). A PROBABLE FACTOR WAS: FAILURE OF EITHER PILOT TO ISSUE A TRAFFIC ADVISORY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89FA159
- Event ID
- 20001213X29368
- Case number
- FTW89FA159
- 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: 42a05b9b38bb493dfc54437c084bb5794e5f8855e45133b5de6dcd65e403ddeb; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:10:07.895Z.