LAX91LA165 · Schweizer SGS 2-33A
Schweizer SGS 2-33A · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during landing
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA165
- 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 Possible conflict
- 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
- N2032T
- Operator
- Michael & Julie Venable
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Proper touchdown point, misjudged
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hemet, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE NON-CERTIFICATED STUDENT PILOT WAS LANDING HIS GLIDER IN A DIRT AND GRASS AREA BETWEEN TWO PARALLEL RUNWAYS. RECENT RAIN HAD PRODUCED A GROWTH OF NEW GRASS IN THE LANDING AREA. THE PILOT HAD NOT LANDED AT THE AIRPORT IN THE LAST 30 DAYS. THE PILOT WAS CONFUSED BY THE PATTERN OF NEW GRASS IN THE LANDING AREA AND TOUCHED DOWN IN AN AREA OF BARE GROUND THAT APPEARED TO BE THE PROPER LANDING ZONE, BUT WAS POSITIONED TOO CLOSE TO PARKED GLIDERS. DURING THE LANDING ROLL OUT, THE RIGHT WING TIP OF HIS GLIDER STRUCK THE LEFT WING OF A PARKED GLIDER AND THEN PIVOTED INTO THE LEFT SIDE OF A SECOND PARKED GLIDER. THE PILOT WAS NOT INJURED. ALL THREE GLIDERS WERE SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PIC TO SELECT A PROPER TOUCH DOWN POINT. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF RECENT FAMILIARITY WITH THE GEOGRAPHIC LAYOUT OF THE LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA165
- Event ID
- 20001212X16807
- Case number
- LAX91LA165
- 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: 2c889c293cb8e18d1b55487e6426a07b337f197b39f1b2e49cfdb05eee661073; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:23:38.286Z.