LAX83FU010 · Mitchell A-10
Mitchell A-10 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FU010
- 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
Mitchell A-10
- Aircraft type
- Mitchell A-10
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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/spin
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PLT OF THE ULTRALIGHT VEHICLE CLIMBED TO AN ALTITUDE OF 700 FT AGL IN THE PATTERN & TURNED DOWNWIND. ACCORDING TO THE PLT'S PARTNER, THE ULTRALIGHT BEGAN A DUTCH ROLL TYPE OF MANEUVER, AND AFTER SEVERAL OSCILLATIONS, THE VEHICLE STALLED & ENTERED A SPIN TO THE LEFT. FOUR OTHER WITNESSES ALSO OBSERVED PARTS OF THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS. ACCORDING TO THEM, THE VEHICLE'S WINGS BEGAN ROCKING ON DOWNWIND, THEN IT ENTERED A SPIN. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. THE PLT HAD APRX 40 HRS OF FIXED WING FLT TRAINING ABOUT 9 YRS PREVIOUSLY. ACCORDING TO THE CHIEF PLT FOR MITCHELL ACFT, THE PLT HAD COMPLETED A 1 WEEK GROUND SCHOOL COURSE & HAD 5.3 HRS OF DUAL INSTRUCTION IN A 2 PLACE VERSION OF THE ULTRALIGHT. ON HIS 1ST SOLO FLT, THE PLT DID NOT PERFORM SATISFACTORILY, DUE TO A PANIC REACTION & WAS ADVISED NOT TO FLY SOLO UNTIL AFTER ADDITIONAL DUAL INSTRUCTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FU010
- Event ID
- 20001214X43783
- Case number
- LAX83FU010
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1983-07-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 409c451ff7f5632273a8ecc6ae1dbd7e206e6c269094aa1f937452f8c7d8b651; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:30:29.689Z.