NYC98LA011 · Schweizer SGS1-26A
Schweizer SGS1-26A · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC98LA011
- 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 SGS1-26A
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS1
- 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
- N1154N
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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
- Flight control, elevator attachment › Reversed
- Flt control syst, elevator control cable/rod › Reversed
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before takeoff, the pilot installed the wings and tail on the glider. During the takeoff, just after the glider became airborne, it pitched up vertically. After the tow rope was released the nose dropped, and the glider impacted the ground. Examination of the glider revealed that the control cables were rigged in reverse and the elevator control bell-crank located in the aft end of the fuselage was installed inverted from its normal position. About 8 days prior to the accident an airframe and powerplant mechanic with inspector authorization performed an annual inspection which included a statement, 'AC assembled and rigged.' At that time, the complete elevator assembly was not installed. The pilot completed the elevator installation after the annual inspection. Prior to the flight, the pilot was asked by a witness if he had performed a 'positive control check' of the primary flight controls, which the pilot stated 'yes.'
Probable cause
The improper installation of the elevator cables and elevator control bell-crank by the pilot, and an inadequate annual inspection by the mechanic. Also causal was the pilot's inadequate preflight of the flight controls prior to takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC98LA011
- Event ID
- 20001208X09105
- Case number
- NYC98LA011
- 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: 30ed3e938ae1ccbcda7e05d383d00269c4bede1e517db6e190be8cc0019e561a; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:46:46.440Z.