LAX83LA234 · LET L-13
LET L-13 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From California City Municipal Airport (L71) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83LA234
- 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
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
- N99965
- Operator
- Aquarian Soaring
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING FLT, THE GLIDER SUSTAINED IN-FLT STRUCTURAL DAMAGE WHILE MANEUVERING AT AN ALTITUDE OF APRX 17,500 FT MSL IN THE VICINITY OF CALIFORNIA CITY, CA. DURING A PRELIMINARY VERBAL STATEMENT TO AN FAA INSPECTOR, THE PLT STATED THAT HE HAD DONE A COUPLE OF LOOPS. HE SAID HE HAD JUST RECOVERED TO LEVEL FLT WHEN HE HEARD A COUPLE OF LOUD BANGS, THEN FELT A SEVERE VIBRATION IN THE CONTROLS. LATER, THE PLT INSISTED THAT NO AEROBATIC MANEUVERS WERE PERFORMED, BUT THAT HE HAD ENCOUNTER TURBULENCE & HAD 'FLOWN THRU A ROTOR.' WRINKLES WERE FOUND IN THE SKIN ON THE AFT FUSELAGE & EMPENNAGE, THE VERTICLE STABILIZER WAS DEFORMED & THE LEFT HORIZONAL STABILIZER & ELEVATOR HAD SEVERAL AREAS OF DEFORMATION. SURFACE WINDS IN THE AREA WERE FROM 270 DEG AT 22 GUSTING 28 KTS. PEAK SURFACE WINDS WERE FROM 290 DEG AT 42 KTS. STANDING LENTICULAR CLOUDS WERE REPORTED TOPPING THE MOUNTAINS & SIGMET JULIET 4 WAS IN EFFECT CAUTIONING OCCASIONAL SEVERE TURBULENCE BELOW 16,000 FT MSL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83LA234
- Event ID
- 20001214X42748
- Case number
- LAX83LA234
- 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: b83702115e50ce13f6d851f280f867e007795bc6cc5fef198f769a0f5b13cb73; retrieved 2026-09-23T22:33:50.284Z.