WPR20LA257 · Sportine Aviacija LAK17 B
Sportine Aviacija LAK17 B · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin while maneuvering
From Lampson Field (1O2) to Lampson Field (1O2)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR20LA257
- 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
Sportine Aviacija LAK17 B
- Aircraft type
- Sportine Aviacija LAK17
- 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
- N290MH
- Operator
- Matt J Herron · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lampson Field (1O2), Lakeport, CATo Lampson Field (1O2), Lakeport, CA
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2020)
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot departed on a local flight in his newly purchased self-launching motorglider in day visual meteorological conditions. Flight track data showed the glider complete multiple turns in the vicinity of the airport at various altitudes. About 20 minutes into the flight, flight track data ended near the accident site. The end of the data showed the glider in a short, steep climb before turning left and losing about 70 ft of altitude. The final data point showed the glider about 564 ft above ground level. There were no witnesses to the accident. Although the recorded data did not capture engine operation for the accident flight, examination of the wreckage indicated that the engine was operating at the time of impact. The pilot had over 1,600 hours of flight experience in gliders and about 4.5 hours in the accident glider. Although the flight track data did not show an aerodynamic stall causing the glider to descend to the ground, it is likely that one occurred. According to photos supplied by first responders, the glider was found in multiple sections scattered within about a 100 ft radius. In the immediate vicinity of the debris field and wreckage, trees and bushes were not damaged indicating that the glider was most likely in a nose low descent at the time of impact.
Probable cause
The pilot’s exceedance of the glider’s critical angle of attack during flight, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR20LA257
- Event ID
- 20200807X30140
- Case number
- WPR20LA257
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, cause areas. 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: cda689aec58e6d862599dbba51d71feb70e803492c7021a155261f6dfffc51d8; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:18:06.431Z.