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LAX83FA346 · Varieze 1

19 Jul 1983 · Mojave, CA, United States

Varieze 1 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

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Event

NTSB case
LAX83FA346
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

Varieze 1

Aircraft type
Varieze 1
Category
Airplane
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
N69EZ
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 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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Stall
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 › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type of aircraft

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PLT PURCHASED THE ACFT A WEEK BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT THE PLT STATED TO RUTAN AIRCRAFT FACTORY PERSONNEL THAT HE HAD NEVER FLOWN THIS TYPE OF ACFT IN THE PAST & WAS AFRAID OF THE ACFT. ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT WITNESSES OBSERVED THE PLT TAXI THE ACFT AROUND THE ARPT FOR ABOUT 10 MINUTES BEFORE TAKING OFF AT 0740. AT 0839 THE ACFT ENTERED THE DOWNWIND LEG FOR RWY 22. AS THE ACFT APPROACHED RWY 22 ON FINAL THE NOSE PITCHED DOWN, FOLLOWED BY A 180 DEG ROLL TO THE LEFT IN A DOWNWARD ATTITUDE. THE ACFT IMPACTED A CROSSING RWY IN AN INVERTED POSITION.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX83FA346
Event ID
20001214X43776
Case number
LAX83FA346
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: 32f26927e49fd52f70373225b068e1d9c3e232b704e5e07642e57fdfeacbe264; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:29:37.244Z.