ERA15LA097 · Cessna 152
Wallace State Community College Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of control on ground while standing
From Cullman Regional Airport-Folsom Field (CMD) to Cullman Regional Airport-Folsom Field (CMD)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15LA097
- 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
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
- N89921
- Operator
- Wallace State Community College
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cullman Regional Airport-Folsom Field (CMD), Cullman, ALTo Cullman Regional Airport-Folsom Field (CMD), Cullman, AL
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1978)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was parked on the ramp as the student pilot was preparing to conduct a local solo flight. The student reported that he primed the engine four times and opened the throttle 1/4 to 1/2 inch for starting. Once the engine was started, the airplane began to roll, and ramp surveillance video showed the airplane quickly accelerating after the engine was started before it exited from the camera's view. The student stated that the brakes were not effective and that the throttle control would not move. The airplane rolled about 344 ft from where it was parked, struck trees, and sustained substantial damage to the forward portion of the fuselage, left wing, and engine firewall.
Postaccident examination of the airplane, which included a functional check of the brakes, did not reveal any preaccident malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Given the evidence, it is likely that the student was not properly applying the brakes when he started the airplane, which allowed it to move forward after the engine started.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control after engine start, which resulted in a ground collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15LA097
- Event ID
- 20150112X62619
- Case number
- ERA15LA097
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: f4a1824eeaab092d18a30fc648d398b98b9090615dc00521673b2495be38c9ce; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:01:30.911Z.