SEA07LA132 · Schweizer SGS 1-26A
Schweizer SGS 1-26A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Skylark Airport (CA89) to Skylark Airport (CA89)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA07LA132
- 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 SGS 1-26A
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS-1
- 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
- N2707Z
- Operator
- Nikolas Dane Snow Kruhmin
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skylark Airport (CA89), Lake Elsinore, CATo Skylark Airport (CA89)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Weather condition › Downdraft
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he took off at approximately 1330 local time and released from the tow plane at 2,800 feet above ground level (AGL). At the conclusion of the 30 minute flight, the pilot maneuvered the glider at 1,000 feet AGL to enter the downwind for the landing runway. According to the pilot, at the point where he normally entered the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, the glider "encountered massive sink." The pilot determined that he would not make it back to the airport and searched for a place to land. The pilot maneuvered over some power lines and touched down on a roadway adjacent to a park The pilot started braking upon landing on the road, but the left wingtip wheel caught on a curb and turned the glider 90 degrees to the left. The glider exited the paved road and came to a stop, upright, as each wing impacted a small tree, and the nose of the glider impacted a wooden fence. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures.
Probable cause
The glider's encounter with a downdraft while in the traffic pattern, resulting in insufficient altitude to reach the airport. A contributing factor was the pilot's selection of an unsuitable off-airport landing area, which led to an on-ground collision with a fence and trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA07LA132
- Event ID
- 20070709X00895
- Case number
- SEA07LA132
- 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: 29e540c43cebabc7ad3ef52cda523ed2d0a0e7ddef3c4f04359898fdbea14b5d; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:48:54.221Z.