SEA01LA058 · Avia Stroitel AC-5m
Avia Stroitel AC-5m · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From Bozeman, MT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA01LA058
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Avia Stroitel AC-5m
- Aircraft type
- Avia Stroitel AC-5
- 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
- N1635M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bozeman, MTTo 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Diverted attention
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to takeoff in a powered glider, the pilot opened and closed the canopy a number of times in order to communicate with members of his ground crew. When he was given clearance for departure, he closed the canopy one last time, but inadvertently did not get the latching mechanism fully engaged. After liftoff, as the aircraft climbed to about 30 feet above the runway, the canopy unexpectedly swung open. The pilot's attention was then momentarily diverted to the open canopy, and when he looked back toward the front of the aircraft, it was just about to impact the surface of the runway in a nose-down attitude. It was later determined that he had not reviewed his checklist just prior to departure to ensure that he had accomplished all critical items.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper remedial action upon experiencing the unexpected opening of the aircraft's canopy during the initial part of the takeoff climb. Factors include his attention being diverted to the open canopy, his failure to use a checklist to ensure he did not miss any critical pre-takeoff actions, his failure to lock the canopy, and the unintentional opening of the canopy after liftoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA01LA058
- Event ID
- 20010309X00572
- Case number
- SEA01LA058
- 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: c6426dca333600e717c4c402a2e2d8b86d4f5b883186beecc0eb61577f4c383b; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:12:07.417Z.