Cessna 152 N24223

Summary

On 5 January 2002 at about 05:58 local time, a Cessna 152 registered N24223, operated by Aero Venture, was involved in an accident near Petaluma, California, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

5 January 2002 at 05:58

Classification

Accident

Location

Petaluma, California, United States

Nearest airport

Petaluma Municipal (O69)

Coordinates

38.2290, -122.5603

Aircraft

Cessna 152

Registration

N24223

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Aero Venture

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Petaluma → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

LAX02FA059

1 person died.

The pilot's intentional flight of the airplane into terrain in an act of suicide.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During low level cruise flight, within 2 minutes following takeoff, the airplane collided with terrain. The student pilot arrived at the airport during nighttime hours when the flight school was closed. He was not scheduled to fly that night and was not endorsed for night flight. He removed keys from the lockbox to an airplane of a type he had never before flown and for which he was not endorsed. He entered the airplane without a preflight inspection, started the engine with difficulty, and then proceeded to the runway and took off without pausing for any pretakeoff checks. The airplane was observed to takeoff into the clear night, turn, and fly into a mountainside about 2 miles distant. The pilot's flight instructor and the owner of the flight school both found the pilot's behavior on the night of the accident completely out of character for him. A local law enforcement official said the pilot was the subject of a criminal investigation and that a search warrant had been served on his home earlier the same day while the pilot was not home. The pilot returned home to find that entry to his home had been forced and records and a computer were seized. The local coroner ruled the death a suicide.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.