LAX06TA234 · LET SUPER BLANIK L-23
LET SUPER BLANIK L-23 · Accident: hard landing during an uncontrolled descent
From Los Alamitos Army Air Field (SLI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06TA234
- 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
LET SUPER BLANIK L-23
- Aircraft type
- Let SUPER BLANIK L-23
- 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
- N381BA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Alamitos Army Air Field (SLI), Los Alamitos, 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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
- Other person › Airspeed, not maintained
- Stall/mush › 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 glider stalled and collided with terrain during takeoff. The operator was using a winch to launch the glider and as the winch operator watched it become airborne, he diverted his eyes from the winch gauges. When he looked back at them, he realized that he was accelerating the glider faster than desired and he reduced the winch's power momentarily. The glider stalled at 80 feet above ground level and it landed hard, which resulted in substantial damage to the left wing. The Glider Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-13) notes that a pilot should be ready for a takeoff any time that the towline is attached to the glider. It advises the pilot to smoothly raise the nose to the proper pitch attitude after liftoff, and watch for an increase in airspeed. The handbook says to avoid raising the nose too rapidly or steeply, as it may be difficult or impossible for the pilot to recover from the steep pitch attitude if the towline breaks or the launch mechanism loses power. It also says to avoid raising the nose too slowly, as the glider may gain excessive airspeed or not attain the planned release speed. If this situation occurs, it advises the pilot to pull the release, and land straight ahead.
Probable cause
failure of the winch operator to maintain an adequate winch tow speed, resulting in a stall and hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06TA234
- Event ID
- 20061212X01770
- Case number
- LAX06TA234
- 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: 0c96ca7b3b82a303275b566511c254f295c5d484371376e3195d32e3687fa246; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:40:59.973Z.