LAX83FA242 · Schempp-Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS STANDARD C
Schempp-Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS STANDARD C and Schempp-Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS STANDARD C · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA242
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Schempp-Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS STANDARD C
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS
- 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
- N184N
- Operator
- Richard Cook
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minden-Tahoe Airport (MEV), Minden, NVTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Schempp-Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS STANDARD C
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS
- 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
- N6482
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minden-Tahoe Airport (MEV), Minden, NVTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
TWO SCHEMPP-HIRTH GLIDERS, N184N & N6482, WERE BEING FLOWN IN A X-COUNTRY CONTEST ALONG A TRIANGULAR COURSE. THE COURSE STARTED AT MINDEN, NV & WENT TO SCHURZ, NV & BRIDGEPORT, CA, THEN BACK TO MINDEN. THE PLTS OF BOTH GLIDERS HAD PARTICIPATED IN CONTESTS FOR OVER 10 YRS & WERE GOOD FRIENDS. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE 2 GLIDERS FLYING CLOSE TO EACH OTHER ALONG THE ROUTE NEAR THE BRIDGEPORT RESERVOIR. THE PLT OF N184N SAID THAT HE SAW N6482 ABOUT 200 FT ABOVE HIM WHILE BOTH WERE IN A THERMAL. HE SAID THAT N6482 LEFT THE THERMAL AT ABOUT 15,500 FT. HE (N184N) MADE ANOTHER TURN IN THE THERMAL, THEN LEFT IT TO CONTINUE TOWARD BRIDGEPORT. THE PLT OF N184N SAID THAT WHEN HE LEFT THE THERMAL, HE DID NOT SEE N6482 UNTIL SOMETIME LATER, JUST A FRACTION OF A SECOND BEFORE IMPACT. HE REPORTED THAT N6482 CONVERGED FROM N184N'S 8 O'CLOCK POSITION. AFTER IMPACT, N6482 ENTERED A DESCENT & CRASHED IN A HILLY WOODED AREA. THE LEFT WING TIP OF N184N SEPARATED & THE CANOPY WAS DAMAGED, BUT THE PLT WAS ABLE TO LAND AT BRIDGEPORT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA242
- Event ID
- 20001214X43016
- Case number
- LAX83FA242
- 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: 75102abbf9421f2499a32526f4822c27b6df008c98e8aff8af9a84622bd21951; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:46:46.884Z.