LAX82FUQ11 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From General William J Fox Airfield (WJF) to General William J Fox Airfield (WJF)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82FUQ11
- 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 172
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N7498X
- Operator
- Charles Harris
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From General William J Fox Airfield (WJF), Lancaster, CATo General William J Fox Airfield (WJF), Lancaster, 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lancaster, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AT 1530 PST, THE PILOT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING FROM THE LANCASTER FSS. AT THAT TIME, THE WIND WAS VARIABLE, 230 TO 250 DEGREES, AT 20 KTS. THE PILOT REPORTED THE WIND WAS VARIABLE FROM THE SAME DIRECTION AT 22 TO 26 KTS, WHILE TAXIING TO RUNWAY 24. THE TAKEOFF WAS STARTED AT ABOUT 1600 PST. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS AT THE ROTATION SPEED OF 60 TO 65 MPH WITH THE NOSEWHEEL OFF OF THE RUNWAY WHEN THE AIRCRAFT WAS HIT BY A SHEAR GUST FROM THE LEFT. HE STATED THE GUST WAS FROM 180 DEGREES AT 43 KTS. THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY, THE NOSE GEAR FAILED, AND THE PLANE NOSED OVER. AT 1604 PST, THE WIND WAS FROM 230 DEGREES AT 27 GUSTING 37 KTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82FUQ11
- Event ID
- 20020917X02309
- Case number
- LAX82FUQ11
- 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 1982-03-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 206206b6a100cf613ba020be55c030c7a1381314374b4252881d96633bbf890c; retrieved 2026-09-24T03:33:12.602Z.