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LAX86LA072 · Cessna 150L

19 Dec 1985 · Tucson, AZ, United States

Cessna 150L · Accident: vortex turbulence encountered during initial climb

From Davis Monthan Air Force Base (DMA) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX86LA072
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 150L

Aircraft type
Cessna 150
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
N10882
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Davis Monthan Air Force Base (DMA), Tucson, AZTo 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
Vortex turbulence encountered
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 › Improper use of procedure
  • Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
  • Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
  • Pilot in command › Safety advisory, disregarded

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

AFTER ABOUT A 45 MIN WAIT AS THE NUMBER ONE ACFT FOR DEPARTURE, THE CONTROLLER INFORMED THE PLT THAT HE COULD EXPECT AN ADDITIONAL 3 MIN WAIT BECAUSE OF WAKE TURBULENCE FROM A (LARGE) EC-130 ACFT WHICH WAS APPROACHING FOR A TOUCH & GO LANDING. THE PLT ELECTED TO WAIVE THE TIME INTERVAL FOR THE WAKE TURBULENCE SEPARATON, AND AS THE EC-130 PASSED HIS POSITION THE CONTROLLER ISSUED THE PLT A CLEARANCE FOR TAKEOFF. THE ACFT CLIMBED TO BETWEEN 25 AND 50 FT AGL AND THEN IT ENCOUNTERED THE WAKE TURBULENCE. THE ACFT PITCHED DOWNWARD, ROLLED RIGHT AND DESCENDED UNTIL IT STRUCK THE RWY, 1 MINUTE, 22 SECONDS AFTER RECEIVING ITS TAKEOFF CLEARANCE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX86LA072
Event ID
20001214X38449
Case number
LAX86LA072
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: 7f353c86c664c2902e41b86588069f59ec2dccc52cdeb2f1dfb1d6cd3538ec8d; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:05:45.276Z.