LAX84FA180 · Maupin WOODSTOCK-I WOODSTOCK-
Maupin WOODSTOCK-I WOODSTOCK- · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From California City Municipal Airport (L71) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX84FA180
- 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
Maupin WOODSTOCK-I WOODSTOCK-
- Aircraft type
- Maupin WOODSTOCK-I
- 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
- N71W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From California City Municipal Airport (L71), California City, 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
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING FLT, THE GLIDER SUSTAINED AN IN-FLT FAILURE OF BOTH WINGS, THEN ENTERED AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT & CRASHED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO PREEXISTING STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS. THE GLIDER WAS EQUIPPED WITH A RECORDING BAROGRAPH. A BAROGRAPH TRACE SHOWED THAT THE GLIDER HAD BEEN AIRBORNE ABOUT 45 MIN & HAD STEP CLIMBED TO 16,500 FT. DURING THE LAST 5 MIN IT HAD DESCENDED 500 FT & CLIMBED 250 FT, THEN ENTERED A RAPID DESCENT (STRAIGHT LINE ON THE RECORDING) & CRASHED. OTHER GLIDER PLTS REPORTED THAT N71W WAS FLYING IN THE VICINITY OF LENTICULAR CLOUDS WITH BASES BETWEEN 14,000 & 18,000 FT. THEY REPORTED 'MILD WAVE CONDITIONS' WITH NO UNUSUALLY STRONG ROTOR. ONE PLT NOTED A PHENOMENON OF 'LENTICULAR JUMP', IN WHICH, THE CLOUD COULD GROW FASTER THAN A GLIDER COULD MOVE AWAY. N17W WAS NOT EQUIPPED FOR INSTRUMENT FLT & DID NOT HAVE AN OXYGEN SYS INSTALLED. THE PLT WAS DIABETIC, BUT A FLT SURGEON'S FINDINGS CONCERNING HIS MEDICAL CONDITION AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WERE INCONCLUSIVE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX84FA180
- Event ID
- 20001214X38800
- Case number
- LAX84FA180
- 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: ee51e0386bc53c909ea8e9f84def4e4c2a7fec0f65dce88513623a2e605b40f3; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:39:49.168Z.