FTW00LA219 · Let L-23 SUPER BLANKIT L-23 SUPER
Let L-23 SUPER BLANKIT L-23 SUPER · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Soaring Club of Houston Gliderport (89TA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW00LA219
- 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
- 1 · 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
Let L-23 SUPER BLANKIT L-23 SUPER
- Aircraft type
- Let L-23
- 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
- N105LW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Soaring Club of Houston Gliderport (89TA), Waller, TXTo 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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/spin
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the towplane reported that the takeoff was normal, and while climbing through 600 feet agl, he initiated a turn to the east and he felt the glider release as the airplane was turning. Witnesses reported that when the towplane turned left, the glider continued straight ahead and entered a climb. The glider then entered an uncoordinated turn to the right toward the airport. Subsequently, the glider's nose dropped, and it entered a spin and impacted the ground. When the tow plane landed it was evident that the tow rope had separated, and the glider pilot had not released in the normal manner. The 5/16-inch polypropylene rope separated at a point 25 feet forward of the glider attach point. The rope's fibers, at the point of separation, were frayed and uneven. The remainder of the rope was clean and free of abrasions, knots, and nicks. According to toxicology tests, 0.034 (ug/ml,ug/g) diphenhydramine was detected in the pilot's blood, and an unquantified amount was found in the urine. Diphenhydramine is an over-the-counter drug used as an antihistamine. Results of a study on diphenhydramine concluded that it adversely affects a person's ability to maneuver an automobile.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain control of the glider while maneuvering. Contributory factors were the in-flight separation of the tow rope and the pilot's physical impairment from his use of diphenhyrdramine.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW00LA219
- Event ID
- 20001212X21474
- Case number
- FTW00LA219
- 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: 8dfa9a405cdfa71b4ec010c220efffdba56a7cfd8b104560b5ff2d5d428f9d13; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:59:42.321Z.