LAX01FA198 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Visalia Municipal Airport (VIS) to Mefford Field (TLR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01FA198
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- N10531
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Visalia Municipal Airport (VIS), Visalia, CATo Mefford Field (TLR), Tulare, CA
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Tulare, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The airplane departed Visalia, California, approximately 0945, for the 10-mile flight to Mefford Field. The flight purpose was to practice takeoffs and landings on the student's eighth solo flight. Two witnesses were at the Farm Exposition grounds, located adjacent to, and at the departure end, of runway 31 at Mefford Field. They noticed that the wing flaps were extended to what was believed to be the full down position. They saw the airplane climb straight out until it reached what was estimated to be 200 to 250 feet above the ground. One witness noticed the airplane begin a turn to the left, in a westerly direction, and saw the nose come up to a higher attitude. He remarked that the airplane was going to stall. Shortly thereafter, the witness saw the airplane snap to the left, make one complete rotation to the left, with the left wing slightly lower of the right, and disappear behind some buildings. The second witness, who is a certificated pilot, was conversing with the first witness. He turned to speak to the first witness, who remarked, "It's going to stall." When he turned back to look, the airplane had disappeared behind the buildings. During the post crash examination of the wreckage, the flap jackscrew actuator was measured. It was extended 5.9 inches, which indicates a flap position of 40 degrees down. The cockpit flap switch was operated, and the switch locked in the up position when activated. The flap fuse was removed and tested. It was shown that the fuse had continuity. Power was applied to the wing flap motor using a 12-volt battery and electrical leads. The motor ran and moved the wing flap jackscrew throughout its range of motion in both directions. The flight instructor who had completed all of the pilot's training was interviewed. The instructor stated he had verbally restricted the student to make full stop landings only, for this particular flight. The instructor did not include this restriction on the solo endorsement. It was not determined if the student had done a full stop, touch-and-go, or a go-around.
Probable cause
The student's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during the crosswind climb that resulted in a stall/spin at low altitude and the airplane's subsequent ground impact. A factor was the student's failure to retract the wing flaps.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01FA198
- Event ID
- 20010607X01090
- Case number
- LAX01FA198
- 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: 26b49bff8cda09476d8ee66bd186118ac9163c7f2dde960ae4bb8a47cf7f1dcd; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:31:39.209Z.