WPR24LA021 · Cessna 152
Hillsboro Aero Academy Cessna 152 · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) on approach
From Roberts Field (KRDM) to Columbia Gorge Regional Airport (KDLS)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24LA021
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- N6308Q
- Operator
- Hillsboro Aero Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roberts Field (KRDM), Redmond, ORTo Columbia Gorge Regional Airport (KDLS), The Dalles, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1981)
- 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 base
- 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the airplane encountered “extreme” turbulence while on the approach to an intermediate stopover airport during a night cross-country flight. The pilot extended the downwind leg of the traffic pattern to stabilize the airplane, and during the base leg turn, the airplane struck a wire and subsequently impacted terrain. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and fuselage.
The airport is located at an elevation of 246 ft mean sea level (msl) in a major river gorge. The northern ridge line above the airport is about 2,900 ft msl, and the southern ridge line is about 1,300 ft msl. The accident location is located about 2 miles south of the airport at an estimated evaluation of about 650 ft msl. High tension powerlines are positioned south of the airport along the southern ridge.
According to the United States Navy Observatory, the official sunset was at 17:12 Pacific daylight time (PDT), the official end of civil twilight was at 17:42 PDT and the official moon set was at 20:02 PDT.
The night cross-county training flight was part of the pilot’s training curriculum for her commercial, airplane single engine land certificate.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s encounter with severe turbulence at night which resulted in an extended downwind and collision with wires during the base turn.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24LA021
- Event ID
- 20231024193298
- Case number
- WPR24LA021
- 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: local date, investigation status, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2023-10-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 89688c29f3ec3d04bdc3fdc54e37d06c4607c26da7346bc451949b7dc9e36aa0; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:14:50.638Z.