LAX05LA224 · Schleicher ASW-20
Schleicher ASW-20 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From California City Municipal Airport (L71) to L71
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA224
- 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
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
- N31AP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From California City Municipal Airport (L71), California City, CATo L71
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
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 mountainous terrain at an elevation of 11,600 feet mean sea level (msl) and was destroyed upon impact. The pilot intended to transition the area along the mountain range prior to returning to his departure point. A flight recording device was recovered from the wreckage and showed that the pilot flew 24 thermals and attempted an additional 9, and the thermaling included turns in both left and right directions. The last recording on the device showed that the glider was established in straight flight at 12,221 feet msl and then began a left turn toward higher terrain. As the left turn began, the device recorded an altitude of 12,129 feet msl and a groundspeed of 66 knots. As the turn continued, the altitude increased to 12,171 feet msl and the airspeed decayed to 56 knots. The last recording showed at altitude of 12,152 feet msl and no groundspeed was recorded. The terrain to the right of the pilot's flight path decreased in altitude and opened up to a substantial valley. The Glider Flying Handbook advises glider pilots to make all turns away from the ridge when slope soaring because a turn toward the ridge is dangerous, even if gliding seemingly well away from the ridge. Examination of the glider revealed no evidence of a preimpact malfunction of the control system.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate terrain clearance altitude and his decision to turn toward higher terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA224
- Event ID
- 20050708X00965
- Case number
- LAX05LA224
- 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: 5f7aaf1f8f0daacb977dc25ccd5c721518ca1e950e05f4c2a0758c4568bdc7d9; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:59:29.003Z.