GAA16CA437 · Cessna 152
Inflight Holdings Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From 7Y7 · Belle Plaine, MN to 7Y7 · Belle Plaine, MN
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA437
- 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
- N631TK
- Operator
- Inflight Holdings
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 7Y7 · Belle Plaine, MNTo 7Y7 · Belle Plaine, MN
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1980)
- 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
- 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
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot reported that during the soft field takeoff roll the airplane veered to the right, and she corrected with left rudder. She further reported that once the main landing gear lifted off the runway, she released the back pressure on the yoke and she "started to lose control" of the airplane. The flight instructor reported that after the loss of control the nose of the airplane "dropped to the ground rapidly", and the right wing impacted the ground and the nose landing gear collapsed.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and firewall.
The flight instructor reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The Federal Aviation Administration has published the Airplane Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-3A (2004). This handbook discusses pilots actions after liftoff during short field takeoff's and states in part:
After becoming airborne, the nose should be lowered very gently with the wheels clear of the surface to allow the airplane to accelerate to VY, or VX if obstacles must be cleared. Extreme care must be exercised immediately after the airplane becomes airborne and while it accelerates, to avoid settling back onto the surface. An attempt to climb prematurely or too steeply may cause the airplane to settle back to the surface as a result of losing the benefit of ground effect. An attempt to climb out of ground effect before sufficient climb airspeed is attained may result in the airplane being unable to climb further as the ground effect area is transited, even with full power. Therefore, it is essential that the airplane remain in ground effect until at least VX is reached. This requires feel for the airplane, and a very fine control touch, in order to avoid over-controlling the elevator as required control pressures change with airplane acceleration.
Probable cause
The student pilot's improper pitch technique after rotation during a short field take off, which resulted in the right wing impacting the ground and a nose gear collapse.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA437
- Event ID
- 20160822X24755
- Case number
- GAA16CA437
- 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. 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: dc96d49070d5c1cdd246d1b446b7b1363a65bce19d23d15df900f32673dbf753; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:10:42.873Z.