- Date
- August 17, 1999, 16:09 local (23:09 UTC)
- Place
- Kennewick, WA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Takeoff
- Aircraft
- N6148QCessna 152
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 2, 2000
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19990817043529A
- Case key
- 47112
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
The NTSB’s determination of the probable cause, and any contributing factors.
The student pilot's inadequate compensation for gusty wind conditions. A contributing factor was gusty winds.
Analysis
The 26-hour student solo pilot initiated takeoff on runway 02. During the takeoff roll and while applying a crosswind correction, a gust of wind from the left picked up the Cessna 152's left wing and the aircraft's right wing impacted the runway. The aircraft then flipped over. Winds at Pasco airport five nautical miles to the northeast were out of the northwest averaging approximately 10 knots during the afternoon of the accident.
Factual narrative
On August 17, 1999, approximately 1609 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 152, N6148Q, registered to Kennewick Aircraft Services, Inc., and being flown by a student pilot, incurred substantial damage when the aircraft nosed over following a loss of control on takeoff at the Vista airport, Kennewick, Washington. The student pilot was uninjured. Visual meteorological conditions existed and a VFR flight plan had been filed. The flight, which was the student's first solo cross country, was to have been operated under 14CFR91, and was destined for Yakima, Washington.
The student pilot was interviewed shortly after the accident by an air traffic controller assigned to the Federal Aviation Administration's control tower at Pasco. He provided the following written statement: "As I approached 50 knots the plane was taking off as speed increased. I had a cross wind correction in for the slight cross wind and then a cross wind gust came at me and made my left wing come up and the right wing hit the ground and made my nose go down to the ground and it hit and I did an end over end flip."
Winds at Pasco airport, five nautical miles northeast of the Kennewick airport, were out of the northwest averaging approximately 10 knots during the afternoon of the accident.
The student pilot later reported on NTSB Form 6120.1/2 (attached) that "I was taking off on runway 02 with no winds shown on the wind sock. As I approached my takeoff speed and as [I] prepared the start [of] my rotation a strong cross wind came from my left making the airplane roll and my right wing hit the runway. I pulled the throttle and then my nose went to the ground and then I flipped end over end over the nose."
The student pilot reported a total of 25.7 hours of flight experience at the time of the accident of which 6.1 hours were pilot-in-command.
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.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N6148Q
- Reported as
- Cessna 152
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15285171
- Airframe hours
- 4,458
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 110 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Kennewick Aircraft Services
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · April 9, 1999 · 90 hours before
- Departed
- S98
- Destination
- YKM · Yakima, WA
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- S98 · Vista Field, runway 2, 4,000 × 150 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
- 18
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 26 total · 26 in this make and model · 6 as pilot in command · 26 in the last 90 days · 14 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 320° at 13 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 93 °F, dew point 64 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- PSC, 5 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.