LAX89LA027 · LET L-13
LET L-13 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA027
- 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-13
- Aircraft type
- Let L-13
- 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
- N90848
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Flt control syst, yoke/control stick › Blocked(partial)
- Passenger › Flight controls, restricted
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF FROM RUNWAY 26 THE CONTROL STICK BECAME DIFFICULT TO MOVE. HE DECIDED TO CONTINUE THE AIR TOW AND RELEASE AT 200 FEET AGL AFTER RELEASE, THE PILOT TURNED THE GLIDER TO RETURN TO THE RUNWAY TO LAND. HE WAS STILL HAVING DIFFICULTY CONTROLLING THE GLIDER AND FELT THAT THE PASSENGER, WHO WAS IN THE FRONT SEAT, MIGHT HAVE BEEN HOLDING THE FORWARD CONTROL STICK. THE PILOT INSTRUCTED THE PASSENGER TO RELEASE THE STICK. CONTROL WAS MOMENTARILY REGAINED THEN LOST AGAIN. THE PILOT COULD NOT MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE GLIDER AND IT COLLIDED WITH RUNWAY 08. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO PROBLEMS WITH THE GLIDER'S CONTROL MECHANISMS. AN EXAMINATION OF ANOTHER BLANIK L-13 INDICATED THAT VERY LITTLE FORCE IS NEEDED ON THE FORWARD CONTROL STICK TO RENDER THE REAR STICK INEFFECTIVE. THE FLIGHT WAS THE PASSENGER'S FIRST IN SMALL AIRCRAFT AND WAS PART OF THERAPY BEING USED TO TREAT THE PASSENGER FOR A MILD ORGANIC BRAIN SYNDROME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA027
- Event ID
- 20001213X27100
- Case number
- LAX89LA027
- 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: 7ad31d8bfdf478107408befeb412a76f3e6cad8d4c86175f90b37939ab829aef; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:30:26.405Z.