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LAX89DUM01 · Arlington SISU 1A

15 Oct 1988 · Borrego Springs, CA, United States

Arlington SISU 1A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From Borrego Valley Airport (L08) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX89DUM01
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

Arlington SISU 1A

Aircraft type
Arlington SISU 1
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
N252JB
Operator
Beran, Lynda G. · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Borrego Valley Airport (L08), BORREGO SPRING, CATo 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
Maneuvering
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/spin
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 › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

WHILE THERMAL SOARING, THE ACFT ENTERED A STEEP SPINNING DESCENT, THREE TURNS TO THE RIGHT FOLLOWED BY TWO TURNS TO THE LEFT AND GROUND IMPACT IN A NEAR VERTICAL ATTITUDE. NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND OF AIRCRAFT STRUCTURAL FAILURE OR CONTROL MALFUNCTION. THE PILOT'S PARTNER IN OWNERSHIP OF THE GLIDER AND LONG-TIME CLOSE FRIEND STATED THAT HE HAD INADVERTENTLY ENTERED A SPIN IN THE AIRCRAFT SEVERAL YEARS EARLIER. HE INDICATED THAT HE HAD TROUBLE RECOVERING FROM IT, SPEED BRAKES WERE INEFFECTIVE AND HE COULD NOT RECOVER FROM IT UNTIL FLAPS WERE RETRACTED AND THE CONTROL STICK WAS PUSHED FULL FORWARD. ALTHOUGH THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND WITH THE SPEED BRAKES RETRACTED AND FLAPS EXTENDED ABOUT 10 DEGREES, BOTH SYSTEMS DISPLAYED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE AND IT COULD NOT BE DETERMINED WHAT THEIR PRE-IMPACT POSITIONS WERE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX89DUM01
Event ID
20001213X27067
Case number
LAX89DUM01
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: 5168176529b07ee4d102bfff2e0691aeac13f1c08d1d527ac9cce797f0c992a0; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:31:25.191Z.