LAX05CA294 · Schweizer SGS2-33A
Schweizer SGS2-33A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From P48 · Peoria, AZ to Peoria, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05CA294
- 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
Schweizer SGS2-33A
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS2
- 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
- N2054T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From P48 · Peoria, AZTo Peoria, AZ
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot reacted to an unusual noise, released from the tow plane immediately after liftoff, and the glider collided with a cactus. This was the first flight of the day for the glider and the pilot. He preflighted the glider, and noted no anomalies. The tow started from the normal point about midway down runway 23L. About 10 feet in the air, the pilot heard a metallic flapping sound. Believing that it might be a structural problem, he released from the tow. While the pilot was looking for a place to land, the glider hit the ground and bounced. The glider then hit a cactus plant about 1,200 feet from the runway, and the pilot lost control. It hit a second cactus with the right wing. The glider spun around, and collided with terrain resulting in substantial damage. Post flight examination revealed a loose wing root gap cover fairing. A ground witness observed the fairing come loose during the takeoff ground roll. An instructor who flew this glider the previous week reported that the fairing checked good on preflight, but came loose in flight. The instructor said the glider's handling characteristics were not affected by the loose fairing and he landed uneventfully.
Probable cause
the pilot's encounter with obstacles and unsuitable terrain in the landing area during the pilot's attempted precautionary landing. A factor in the accident was the loose wing root gap seal fairing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05CA294
- Event ID
- 20051013X01640
- Case number
- LAX05CA294
- 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: 54d5ee3ce150bea81163cb393349e8abcd44ecc9b2582a17c571a3de67447c33; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:22:56.115Z.