LAX03LA291 · Schempp-Hirth Standard Cirrus
Schempp-Hirth Standard Cirrus · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From 026 · Lone Pine, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX03LA291
- 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
- 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
Schempp-Hirth Standard Cirrus
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth STANDARD CIRRUS
- 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
- N71DA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 026 · Lone Pine, CATo 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Flt control syst, wing spoiler system › Deployed inadvertently
- Flt control syst, wing spoiler system › Not connected
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The glider collided with power lines shortly after the pilot released from the tow airplane. Prior to departure, the pilot assembled the glider by himself. During the initial climb out, the tow airplane's climb performance was poor, and the tow pilot noticed that the glider's spoilers were in the deployed position. The tow pilot opted to return back to the airport and while in the turn, the glider pilot released from the towline. The glider pilot announced over the radio that he was having problems with the spoilers and planned to attempt to maneuver back to the airport. The glider turned and then continued on a flight path until impacting high-tension power lines. The glider's service manual states that prior to departure the pilot should check the function of the control surfaces, and ensure that the spoilers are operating properly. A post accident examination of the spoiler control rods inside the fuselage revealed that the inboard sections of both control rods were not connected to their corresponding bell crank. The glider is designed in such a way that to assemble the spoilers, the person performing the assembly must access the control rods from the cockpit, by going through the aft bulkhead. While connecting the spoilers, it is not possible to visually assess how to make the assembly. The assembly must be done by feeling the parts and connecting them without any visual reference.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate assembly of the glider and improper preflight inspection, which resulted in an inadvertent deployment of the spoilers. Also causal was the pilot's failure to maintain obstacle clearance. His diverted attention to the control problems presented by the deployed spoilers was a contributing factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX03LA291
- Event ID
- 20031001X01644
- Case number
- LAX03LA291
- 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, coordinates. 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: b5bb389efaef3ce0c9f7f7ba40f153e7a1edcfeb3444f2e8f399a465556fa5b8; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:57:01.221Z.