NYC05LA002 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 and Cessna 172 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC05LA002
- 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
- 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N68298
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cincinnati West Airport (I67), Harrison, OHTo Cincinnati West Airport (I67), Harrison, OH
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · 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
- N12625
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cincinnati West Airport (I67), Harrison, OHTo Cincinnati West Airport (I67), Harrison, OH
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Radio communications, improper
- Pilot of other aircraft › Radio communications, improper
- Traffic pattern procedure › Improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilots of the Cessna 172 and Cessna 152 were participating in a "spot landing" contest at the airport. The pilot of the C-172 departed, and he said he observed the C-152 takeoff. The C-172 pilot continued in the left traffic pattern, believing the C-152 was well behind him. The C-172 pilot turned onto final at an altitude of 500 feet, about 1 mile from the runway. The pilot of the C-152 turned onto the base leg, abeam the runway numbers, "very close" to the runway, and then turned final at 200-300 feet AGL. Both aircraft continued in descending, stabilized approaches, and about 1/4 mile from the runway, the aircraft collided and began a slow descending spiral, locked together, until they impacted a gravel pit. The pilot of the C-152 reported his position on the UNICOM frequency, only on the downwind leg. Additionally, he did not check final approach for other aircraft prior to turning final, nor did he hear any other radio calls on the frequency. The pilot of the C-172 reported that he announced his position on the downwind, base, and final legs of the approach. He additionally stated that he only heard the pilot of the C-152 announce his position once, on the downwind leg. According to FAR 91.113(g), "Aircraft, while on final approach to land or while landing, have the right-of-way over other aircraft in flight."
Probable cause
The Cessna 152 pilot's improper traffic pattern procedure and improper radio communication, which resulted in a mid-air collision with a Cessna 172. A factor in the accident was both pilots' failure to maintain an adequate visual lookout.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC05LA002
- Event ID
- 20041019X01650
- Case number
- NYC05LA002
- 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. 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: 5f06bdee5a9c179cd306529ca96a3fdf558a380302e9adcd42d54e7741808065; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:12:08.503Z.