LAX87LA003 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Zamperini Field (TOA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA003
- 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
- N24285
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 › Aircraft handling, poor
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 152 WENT OUT OF CONTROL DURING TAKEOFF GROUND RUN AND THEN COLLIDED WITH A DIRT BANK AND NOSED OVER. THE STUDENT PLT INDICATED THAT HE WAS PRACTICING TOUCH AND GO LANDINGS WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. HE HAD JUST APPLIED TAKEOFF POWER AFTER LANDING AND THE ACFT BEGAN TO VEER TO THE LEFT. THE ACFT DEPARTED THE RWY AND STRUCK A DIRT BANK APPROXIMATELY 50 FT FROM THE RWY EDGE. THE ACFT THEN NOSED OVER IN A FRESHLY PLOWED FIELD ADJACENT TO THE RWY. THE STUDENT PLT ALSO INDICATED THAT THERE WERE NO MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. EXAM OF THE AREA IN WHICH THE ACFT DEPARTED THE RWY REVEAL A DEEPLY WORN DIRT ROAD PARALLEL TO THE RWY WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE RUNWAY SAFETY AREA. ACCORDING TO ADVISORY CIRCULAR (AC) 150-5300-4B, THE RUNWAY SAFETY AREA SHOULD BE GRADED AND ACCOMMODATE THE OCCASIONAL PASSAGE OF ACFT WITHOUT CAUSING MAJOR DAMAGE TO THE ACFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA003
- Event ID
- 20001213X34980
- Case number
- LAX87LA003
- 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: 5eade944ad5d969baddbc4607466a9db213d706a64f2cce23e486de5a196402b; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:55:31.788Z.