NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA25LA181
Registry · N37PL
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
SCHLEICHER ASW-19
Year of manufacture
1978 · 47 years old at event
Engine
AMA/EXPR UNKNOWN ENG
Seats / Engines
1 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20110506
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A432C2
Registrant of record
TAMPA BAY SOARING SOCIETY INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s inadequate inflight planning and an encounter with atmospheric conditions where the lift was not sufficient to maintain flight, resulting in an off-airport landing and collision with a fence.
Factual narrative
The pilot of the glider took off under aerotow for a flight in the local soaring area. The pilot released from the tow airplane at an altitude of 2,500 ft and 3 miles downwind of the airport. While soaring, the pilot found a thermal and regained some lost altitude to 2,300 feet msl. The pilot then reported making several 360° turns in the thermal to gain additional altitude, but he then noticed that he was now 8 miles from the airport and decided to turn back toward the airport. While soaring back to the airport, the pilot was unable to find any thermals to regain altitude. When the pilot was 3 miles from the airport at an altitude of 1,000 ft, he determined he did not have sufficient altitude to make it back to the airport and began to look for an off-airport landing area. The pilot found a pasture that he believed would be a suitable landing site. During the approach, the pilot noticed there was a wire fence across the pasture. As he approached the fence during landing, he retracted the spoilers and pitched the nose up in an attempt to clear the fence. Subsequently, the stall warning activated, and the glider impacted a fence pole which resulted in substantial damage to both wings. The pilot reported there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the glider that would have precluded normal operation. He further stated that the accident could have been prevented if he had requested that he be towed and released upwind of the airport. 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).
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Temp/humidity/pressure-Thermal lifting-Effect on operation
- — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2025_ERA25LA181.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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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.
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Automating Bird Diverter Installation through Multi-Aerial Robots and Signal Temporal Logic Specifications
This paper tackles the task assignment and trajectory generation problem for bird diverter installation using a fleet of multi-rotors.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Variation of Critical Crystallization Pressure for the Formation of Square Ice in Graphene Nanocapillaries
Two-dimensional square ice in graphene nanocapillaries at room temperature is a fascinating phenomenon and has been confirmed experimentally.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Polycrystallinity enhances stress build-up around ice
Damage caused by freezing wet, porous materials is a widespread problem, but is hard to predict or control. Here, we show that polycrystallinity makes a great difference to the stress build-up process…
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint
Enhanced Prediction of Three-dimensional Finite Iced Wing Separated Flow Near Stall
Icing on three-dimensional wings causes severe flow separation near stall. Standard improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) is unable to correctly predict the separating reattaching flow due…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2021 · Journal article (JAAER)
Analysis on the Negative Emotional, Physiological, and Cognitive Responses Elicited from of the Activation of a Stall Alarm
Failing to identify an aerodynamic stall can lead to the inability of an aircraft to sustain flight. To warn pilots of an impending or fully-developed stall, many aircraft have safety devices installe…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗