LAX82DA335 · Schempp-Hirth VENTUS
Schempp-Hirth VENTUS and Schleicher ASW-20 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82DA335
- 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
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Schempp-Hirth VENTUS
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth VENTUS
- 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
- N214T
- Operator
- James A. Nezgoda · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From California City, CATo California City, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Schleicher ASW-20
- Aircraft type
- Schleicher ASW-20
- 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
- N44MA
- Operator
- Michael J. Adams · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From California City, CATo California City, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of California City, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED DURING A CROSS-COUNTRY GLIDER RACE INVOLVING 41 GLIDERS. SEVEN OR EIGHT GLIDERS WERE CIRCLING IN RIGHT TURNS IN A THERMAL AT APPROXIMATELY THE SAME ALTITUDE WHEN THE COLLISION OCCURRED. THE PLT OF THE VENTUS STATED HIS GLIDER BECAME UNCONTROLLABLE & HE SUCCESSFULLY BAILED OUT. THE PLT OF THE ASW-20 RETURNED TO THE CALIFORNIA CITY ARPT & LANDED OKAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82DA335
- Event ID
- 20020917X04737
- Case number
- LAX82DA335
- 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: 81f010f5da8a2c8083d7a0c65a1dcc06437479a4bd08a59e0e409b6080f6dd0e; retrieved 2026-09-24T01:04:42.516Z.