GAA19CA389 · Cessna 152
Us Aviation Group Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Cox Field (PRX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA389
- 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
- N757YK
- Operator
- Us Aviation Group
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cox Field (PRX), Paris, TXTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1977)
- 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 in flight
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The solo student pilot reported that, while practicing a soft-field takeoff, he applied full power and pitched the airplane's nose "above the horizon." The airplane became airborne, the wind pushed the airplane to the left, and the airplane struck a hay bale on the left side of the runway. The student turned the airplane toward the runway and landed on the remaining runway without further incident.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and empennage.
The chief flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The airport's automated weather observation station reported that, about 34 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 240° at 4 knots. The same automated station reported that, about 26 minutes after the accident, the wind was from 240° at 9 knots. The student was departing from runway 17.
The chief flight instructor reported that the student's flight instructor told him not to practice soft-field takeoffs during a solo flight. The instructor stated that the student required more practice on the takeoff technique.
Probable cause
The student pilot's failure to maintain the runway heading during takeoff with a crosswind, which resulted in impact with a hay bale left of the runway, and his improper decision to perform a soft-field takeoff without adequate practice.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA389
- Event ID
- 20190706X74138
- Case number
- GAA19CA389
- 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: 9560ef645d2492043420b55d479a30c59a223ca35cdfb17029ad73aa44cded03; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:22:36.884Z.