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LAX87FA296 · Cessna 152

7 Aug 1987 · Palo Alto, CA, United States

Palo Alto Flying Club Cessna 152 and Mooney M20J · Accident: midair collision during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
LAX87FA296
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

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
N152SC
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Palo Alto Airport (PAO)To Palo Alto Airport (PAO)
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
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
Minor

Aircraft 2 · Mooney M20J

Aircraft type
Mooney M20
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
N5201Y
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, CATo Buchanan Field (CCR)
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
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Traffic advisory, delayed
  • Atc personnel(supervisor) › Supervision, inadequate
  • 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 MIDAIR COLLISION OCCURRED ABT 2.8 MI WEST OF PALO ALTO ARPT (PAO) AS CESSNA 152, N152SC, WAS ON A LEFT X-WND DEP FM RWY 30 & MOONEY M20J, N5201Y WAS TRANSITTING THE ARPT TRAFFIC AREA (ATA) FM SE TO NW & DSCNDG FM 2400' TO 1500'. N152SC WAS ON TWR FREQ. N5201Y (ON A TRAFFIC WATCH FLT FOR A LCL RDO STN) HAD JUST BEEN GIVEN A FREQ CHG TO SAN CARLOS (SQL) TWR TO TRANSIT ITS ATA, WHICH WAS NEXT TO THE PAO ATA. THE LCL CTL PSN AT PAO WAS BEING WORKED BY A DEVELOPMENTAL CTLR (D/C) UNDER SUPVN OF THE TWR SUPVR. HE DIDN'T IDENT N5201Y ON HIS BRITE RADAR. THE SUPVR SAW A PSBL CONFLICT DEVELOPING & WAITED A FEW SEC BFR ISSUING AN ADZY TO SEE IF THE D/C WOULD SEE & RESOLVE IT. THE SUPVR THEN TRANSMITTED A TRAFFIC ADZY TO N152SC, BUT THERE WAS NO REPLY. ABT 9 SEC LTR, THE 2 ACFT CONVERGED & COLLIDED. NEITHER AIRCREW SAW THE OTR ACFTIN TIME TO AVOID A COLLISION, BUT BOTH WERE ABLE TO LND SAFELY. THE D/C HAD 8 HRS OF OJT IN THAT PSN. THE AIRSPACE WAS COMPLEX WHERE 5 ATA'S ADJOINED EACH OTHER; THE VARIABLE TCA FLOOR SEGMENTS RANGED FM 4000' OVER PAO TO 1500' OVER SQL.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX87FA296
Event ID
20001213X31832
Case number
LAX87FA296
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 1987-08-08.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 50450ab4e6fabb8221372536b133322a4e024d9b0ffb8fc40dd48c08dd256db9; retrieved 2026-09-23T12:29:08.536Z.