Cessna 152 N49430

Summary

On 26 August 2022 at about 19:27 local time, a Cessna 152 registered N49430 was involved in an accident near Ione, California, United States. 2 people were on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

26 August 2022 at 19:27

Classification

Accident

Location

Ione, California, United States

Nearest airport

Priv (PRIV)

Coordinates

38.2176, -120.9081

Aircraft

Cessna 152

Registration

N49430

Category

Airplane

Year built

1978

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lodi → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR22LA320

1 person had minor injuries.

The flight instructor’s delayed decision to abort the takeoff, which resulted in impact with a fence and a tree. Contributing to the accident was the instructor’s decision to land at the unfamiliar airstrip without determining whether it was within the airplane’s performance capabilities.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

During a discovery flight, the passenger asked the instructor if they could land at a private airstrip near his residence. The instructor was not familiar with this particular airstrip, nor had he consulted the airplane’s performance charts to determine if a safe landing and takeoff could be completed, but he still agreed to land. After landing to the west, the instructor turned the airplane around to depart to the east, as the wind appeared calm. He performed a short-field takeoff and observed the engine speed advance as the airplane began to move down the runway. When the airplane was about midfield, the instructor noticed that both his digital and analog airspeed indicators displayed 0 knots. Shortly after making this observation, after the airplane had traveled about 3/4 of the total length of the 1,300-ft-long runway, he decided to abort the landing. The airplane subsequently collided with a fence at the end of the runway and trees beyond the runway edge. A postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact mechanical anomalies with the airframe or engine that could have precluded normal operation. Examination of the pitot/static system did not indicate any failures or blockages. Performance computations indicated that the airplane had the required performance to complete the takeoff from a paved, level runway; however, the departure runway was composed of dirt, which the takeoff performance chart did not account for. Performance charts also indicated that the airplane did not have the distance necessary to stop when the instructor aborted the takeoff to avoid impacting the fence at the end of the runway. Therefore, the instructor’s delayed decision to abort the takeoff resulted in a collision with a fence and a tree. His decision to land at the unfamiliar airstrip without determining whether the airplane’s performance capabilities were adequate to perform a safe takeoff and landing contributed to the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.