LAX83FA333 · Rolladen-Schneider LS3-A
Rolladen-Schneider LS3-A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH) to Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA333
- 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
Rolladen-Schneider LS3-A
- Aircraft type
- Rolladen Schneider LS3
- 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
- N56TM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH), Bishop, CATo Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH), Bishop, CA
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE GLIDER PLT WAS PARTICIPATING IN A SOARING CONTEST WHICH INVOLVED A QUADRANGLE COURSE. WHILE ENROUTE TO THE 1ST TURN POINT WITH 2 OTHER SAILPLANES, THE PLT WAS OBSERVED TO DEPART FROM THE GENERAL FLT PATH OF THE OTHER 2 GLIDERS & FLY ON THE LEEWARD SIDE OF A RIDGELINE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE GLIDER CRASHED BETWEEN 2 KNOLLS, ABOUT 51 FT WEST & 5 FT BELOW THE RIDGELINE, IN A SLIGHTLY NOSE UP & A NEAR WINGS LEVEL ATTITUDE. NO PREIMPACT/PART MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE WAS FOUND. BETWEEN 1150 & 1250 PDT, THE WIND AT BISHOP, CA SHIFTED FROM 030 TO 340 DEG. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED ABOUT 6 MI NORTHEAST OF BISHOP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA333
- Event ID
- 20001214X43773
- Case number
- LAX83FA333
- 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: e47cce01827c70249678e71a3b08fabe24f6f04d0744a09bf519214108f2038f; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:30:04.176Z.