LAX89FA311 · Cessna 152
Liberty Aviation Services Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89FA311
- 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
- N25776
- Operator
- Liberty Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, CATo 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Dual student › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Buena Park, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT AND HIS NON-CERTIFICATED STUDENT PILOT WERE PREPARING FOR TAKEOFF AND LANDING TRAINING. THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT THE STUDENT PILOT WAS FINISHING THE PREFLIGHT WHEN HE ARRIVED AT THE AIRCRAFT. THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT HE CHECKED THE OIL AND MADE A VISUAL CHECK OF THE FUEL QUANTITY IN THE RIGHT WING TANK. THE STUDENT PILOT MADE THE TAKEOFF AND AS THE AIRCRAFT CLIMBED TO 150 FEET ABOVE THE RUNWAY THE ENGINE FAILED. THE INSTRUCTOR TOOK OVER THE CONTROLS FOR THE OFF AIRPORT FORCED LANDING. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A RESIDENCE, IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A STREET AND NOSED OVER ON ITS BACK. A POST CRASH FIRE CONSUMED THE CABIN SECTION.
Probable cause
AN INADEQUATE PERFORMED PREFLIGHT INSPECTION BY THE DUAL STUDENT AND THE INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE DUAL STUDENT BY THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT. CONTAMINATED FUEL WAS A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89FA311
- Event ID
- 20001213X29402
- Case number
- LAX89FA311
- 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: 821dc473650d80f620b409ff1b90382091377075374cf21802b8ce89b91498db; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:49:30.918Z.