LAX95LA164 · Schweizer SGS 2-33A
Turf Soaring School Schweizer SGS 2-33A · Accident: undershoot on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA164
- 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
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
Schweizer SGS 2-33A
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS-2
- Category
- Glider
- 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
- N7758S
- Operator
- Turf Soaring School
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Undershoot
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THIS WAS THE THIRD FLIGHT OF THE DAY IN THE SAME MODEL OF GLIDER FROM PLEASANT VALLEY. HE SAID HE WAS FAMILIAR WITH THE AREA AND WAS OBSERVANT OF THE LOCAL WEATHER CONDITIONS. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, AFTER BEING TOWED TO 3,000 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL AND THEREAFTER FLYING BETWEEN 15 AND 20 MINUTES, HE ENTERED THE NORMAL LANDING TRAFFIC PATTERN. IMMEDIATELY AFTER TURNING ONTO THE BASE LEG, HE BECAME AWARE THAT THE GLIDER WAS 'LOSING A GREAT DEAL OF ALTITUDE.' THE PILOT FURTHER REPORTED THAT HE 'IMMEDIATELY TURNED AGAIN TO ANGLE SHARPLY TOWARD THE RUNWAY, RATHER THAN FLYING SQUARE BASE AND FINAL LEGS.' WITH INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO RETURN TO THE AIRSTRIP, AND WITH THE GLIDER DESCENDING RAPIDLY, THE PILOT MADE AN OFF-FIELD LANDING ABOUT 1/4 MILE EAST OF RUNWAY 21. THE LOCAL WIND WAS FROM 210 DEGREES, AT 10 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO 16 KNOTS.
Probable cause
the pilot's misjudged evaluation of the weather, and his inadequate compensation for the gusting winds and downdrafts.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA164
- Event ID
- 20001207X03320
- Case number
- LAX95LA164
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 86971deb599798a09b803aa1fe094710dc613b229d44fc50193bd11db320952d; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:21:48.848Z.