LAX82DA214 · Cessna 152
Air Center West Cessna 152 · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From Meadows Field (BFL) to Metz Airport (3CA7)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82DA214
- 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
- N6341M
- Operator
- Air Center West
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Meadows Field (BFL), Bakersfield, CATo Metz Airport (3CA7), Greenfield, 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
- Landing
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of San Andreas, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT WAS A FOREIGN NATIONAL THAT WAS SCHEDULED FOR A SOLO CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT. HE DEPARTED WITH A PASSENGER THAT WAS A PRIVATE PILOT WITH A GROUND INSTRUCTOR RATING. ACCORDING TO THE PASSENGER, THE STUDENT HAD NOT FLOWN FOR 8 DAYS AND WAS AFRAID TO FLY THE SOLO CROSS-COUNTRY ALONE. WHILE LANDING AT ONE OF THE EN ROUTE AIRPORTS, THE STUDENT WAS HIGH ON FINAL APPROACH AND TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT MIDWAY DOWN THE RUNWAY. THE STUDENT BEGAN APPLYING BRAKES, AND THEN A GO-AROUND WAS INITIATED WITH SOME HELP FROM THE PASSENGER. REPORTEDLY, THE LEFT STABILIZER STRUCK AN APPROACH LIGHT DURING TAKEOFF. AFTER LANDING, A 2 1/2 INCH HOLE WAS FOUND IN THE STABILIZER. THE PASSENGER AND PILOT COVERED THE HOLE WITH DUCT TAPE AND PROCEEDED ON THE CROSS-COUNTRY. AFTER RETURNING TO THE HOME AIRPORT, TWO STRESS CRACKS WERE FOUND IN THE REAR SPAR OF THE STABILIZER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82DA214
- Event ID
- 20020917X03558
- Case number
- LAX82DA214
- 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: a7122f27c87be8cae035131666b147495d10d4e7a619dc724c8447f6e020d2f1; retrieved 2026-09-24T03:01:33.857Z.