LAX95LA311 · Elan Glaser Dirks DG-300 ELAN DG-300 ELA
Elan Glaser Dirks DG-300 ELAN DG-300 ELA · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Juwata International Airport / Suharnoko Harbani AFB (TRK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA311
- 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
Elan Glaser Dirks DG-300 ELAN DG-300 ELA
- Aircraft type
- Elan Glaser Dirks DG-300
- 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
- N300HX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Juwata International Airport / Suharnoko Harbani AFB (TRK)To 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 final
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Truckee, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY TERMINATES IN A STEEP BLUFF WITH A 175-FOOT DROP OFF AT A 70-DEGREE ANGLE. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED TO BE LOW ON THE BASE-TO-FINAL TURN. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS 700 FEET HIGHER IN THE PATTERN TO COMPENSATE FOR THE TURBULENCE HE EXPECTED. HE EXTENDED THE SPOILERS AND THEN RETRACTED THEM, AND THEN LOWERED THE NOSE IN AN EFFORT TO INCREASE AIRSPEED. ON FINAL, THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED BELOW THE TERRAIN AT THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY AND CRASHED INTO THE BLUFF. THE PILOT SAID THAT WHILE IN THE TURN THE AIRSPEED DID NOT INCREASE AS EXPECTED AND HE WAS UNABLE TO REACH THE RUNWAY WHEN THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED A DOWNDRAFT. THE PREVAILING WINDS WERE CAUSING TURBULENCE AND DOWNDRAFTS AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY WAS CONFIRMED BY THE FAA. THE PILOT HAD BEEN BRIEFED ON THE WIND CONDITIONS AND SAID HE HAD EXPERIENCED THEM PREVIOUSLY.
Probable cause
the pilot misjudged his planned approach by selecting a touchdown point close to the runway's approach end that did not provide sufficient clearance to safely maneuver when forcast turbulence and downdrafts were encountered. The pilot's early extension of spoilers was a factor in this accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA311
- Event ID
- 20001207X04305
- Case number
- LAX95LA311
- 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: 75a061246928c5c23762dd7615e2b270dde616f0ba2ce540ad51055d0a265f5c; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:06:33.080Z.