- Date
- June 18, 1989, 15:30 local (19:30 UTC)
- Place
- Port Huron, MI
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N8752SCessna 150
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report June 18, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890618016029A
- Case key
- 14370
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Improper in-flight planning/decision by the student pilot and his inadvertent encounter with wake turbulence from the transport aircraft. The student's lack of total experience was considered a contributing factor.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
According to a witness, the student plt was on an apch to land & was following a junker JU-52 (a german, world war ii, tri-motor, transport plane). The witness estimated the student's acft (a Cessna 150) was aprx 1/4 mi behind the JU-52. The JU-52 touched down on the first 1/3 of the rwy. As the Cessna was about to land, it was at aprx 20 to 50 ft AGL, when it banked rapidly from side to side, the nose pitched, & then the plane crashed. The student's instructor & some witnesses suspected the Cessna had encountered wake turbulence from the JU-52.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8752S
- Reported as
- Cessna 150
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15062052
- Airframe hours
- 2,634
- Engine
- Continental O-200-A, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Phn Air Inc
- Registered owner
- Phn Air, Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · May 9, 1989 · 68 hours before
- Departed
- PTK · Pontiac, MI
- Destination
- PHN
- Airport
- PHN · St Clair County, runway 22, 5,105 × 100 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 60
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 102 total · 97 in this make and model · 38 as pilot in command · 13 in the last 90 days · 11 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 260° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 81 °F, dew point 55 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MTC, 23 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.