Skip to content

NYC87LA233

1987-08-15 · DANSVILLE, New York, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport DSV

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE PLT STATED THAT AS HE WAS ADJUSTING HIS SEAT BELT WITH THE CANOPY OPEN, THE GLIDER BEGAN BEING PULLED BY THE TOW PILOTS ACFT. HE MANEUVERED THE WING TIP CLEAR OF SOME PARKED ACFT, GRABBED THE CANOPY HATCH, AND HELD IT SHUT DURING THE TKOF. THE COCKPIT CHECK HAD NOT BEEN COMPLETED AND THE DIVE BRAKES WERE UNLOCKED AND INADVERTENTLY LEFT OPEN DURING THE TKOF. WITH THE GLIDER IN THIS CONFIGURATION, IT WOULD NOT CLIMB SO THE TOW PLT CIRCLED THE FLD AND GAVE A MANDATORY WAVE OFF SIGNAL WHILE AT ABT 400 FT. THE GLIDER PLT TURNED 180 DEGREES IN AN EFFORT TO LND DOWNWIND BUT ENTERED A STALL. DURING THE RECOVERY THE LEFT WING COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. THE GLIDER PLT STATED THAT HE SHOULD HAVE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY BEFORE BECOMING AIRBORNE. HE HAD OVER 51 HOURS LOGGED IN GLIDERS OF WHICH 6 WERE IN THE LAST 90 DAYS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_NYC87LA233.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers