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Atlas / NTSB / CEN24LA133

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN24LA133

2024-03-12 Falcon, Colorado, United States Airport · FLY Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N2905H

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

SCHWEIZER SGS 2-33A

Year of manufacture

1979 · 45 years old at event

Engine

NONE NONE

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19630719

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A2F889

Registrant of record

HIGH FLIGHTS SOARING CLUB

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The flight instructor’s failure to maintain control during takeoff which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and an impact with terrain.

Factual narrative

The flight instructor stated that during the ground launch he rotated the glider and then accelerated in ground effect before he pulled aft stick to accelerate on the launch arc. He then applied right stick correction for runway alignment after which a gust of wind lifted the right wing. The flight instructor was unable to counter the left roll with flight control inputs and the glider stalled. The tow rope, once side loaded, automatically disconnected as designed. The left wing impacted the ground which resulted in substantial damage to the left wing and empennage. The flight instructor stated that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal glider operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Instructor/check pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Not attained/maintained
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Ability to respond/compensate
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Ability to respond/compensate

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_CEN24LA133.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗