LAX83FU009 · American Aerolights EAGLE XL
American Aerolights EAGLE XL · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FU009
- 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
American Aerolights EAGLE XL
- Aircraft type
- American Aerolights EAGLE XL
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- 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 103: Ultralight
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Level off, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS IN ANOTHER ULTRALIGHT SAW THE PLT OF THE EAGLE XL CLIMB TO ABOUT 800 TO 1000 FT AGL AFTER TAKING OFF. THE WITNESS WAS APRX 500 FT AGL WHEN HE SAW THE EAGLE XL START A STEEP DESCENT FROM HIS 8 TO 9 O'CLOCK HIGH POSITION AND THOUGHT THE EAGLE XL PLT WAS DESCENDING TO MEET HIM. HE LOOKED AWAY TO SCAN FOR OTHER TRAFFIC AND WHEN HE LOOKED BACK HE SAW THE EAGLE XL JUST BEFORE IT IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A NEAR VERTICLE DIVE. HE NOTICED THAT BEFORE IMPACT THE LEFT WING APPEARED TO BE SWEPT BACK APRX 15 TO 20 DEG MORE THAN THE RIGHT WING. EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT THE LEFT FRONT FLYING WIRE WAS FOUND SEPARATED AT THE BOWSPRIT ATTACHPOINT. THE PILOT HAD PREVIOUSLY FAILED A FLIGHT PHYSICAL DUE TO HIS FAILURE TO PASS TWO DEPTH PERCEPTION TESTS. REPORTEDLY, THE PLT HAD PREVIOUSLY MADE RAPID DESCENTS AND HAD SAID HE ENJOYED DOING THESE MANEUVERS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FU009
- Event ID
- 20001214X43383
- Case number
- LAX83FU009
- 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: cd01385c6444cc93f43cb2ec0f9db20e48f2d02fcc6e788f887eefcc1db06830; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:35:09.655Z.