FTW03LA041 · Cessna 152
National Aviation Services Cessna 152 · Accident en route
From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03LA041
- 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 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
- N4794P
- Operator
- National Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH), Houston, TXTo 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Dual student › Psychological condition
- Dual student › Suicide, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
When the private pilot scheduled the instructional flight, he stated that he had an ear operation and needed to see how his ears would feel at altitude before he went for an FAA medical certificate. He also stated that he was contemplating doing some aerial photography, and wanted to see how the aerial visibility was from the airplane during turns at altitude. He flew the airplane to an altitude of 9,500 feet msl where he opened the left window, stated that he wanted to check his ears, and requested that the CFI fly the airplane. The private pilot made two request for the CFI to increase the angle of bank. Subsequently, the flight instructor increased the turn to 45-degree bank and started a 300 to 500 foot per minute descent rate. The CFI heard a "noise that sounded like maybe the seat belt hitting the side of the [air]plane" and the CFI looked to his left and saw the private pilot exiting the airplane. The CFI noticed the #1 radio was already tuned to 121.5 MHz (emergency frequency). The CFI notified the controller that the private pilot had exited the airplane. The CFI landed the airplane without incident. Examination of the aircraft restraint system and the left cabin door did not reveal any discrepancies. Evidence and statements obtained by friends and co-workers of the private pilot indicated an ongoing treatment for depression and a recent intent to take his own life by using an aircraft. A note found in the private pilot's vehicle stated in part: "I'm tired of being depressed. I've been this way for almost 2 months. I'm about ready to do anything to stop feeling this way."
Probable cause
The dual student's intentional suicide by exiting from the airplane during descent. A contributing factor was the psychological condition of the dual student.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03LA041
- Event ID
- 20021121X05504
- Case number
- FTW03LA041
- 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, coordinates, damage. 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: 2feb3dcbe3aee38d5ad2c429b2e2d6cfd257e250b07c8ba70fe6a3a51b0b29e4; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:39:42.243Z.