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Atlas / NTSB / WPR24LA273

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR24LA273

2024-07-25 Fields, Oregon, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N1599

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

GLASFLUGEL STANDARD LIBELLE

Year of manufacture

1968 · 56 years old at event

Engine

NONE NONE

Seats / Engines

1 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19690210

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A0EF31

Registrant of record

WILLAMETT VALLEY SOARING CLUB

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The glider’s encounter with a gusting wind and downdraft conditions, which resulted in exceedance of the glider’s critical angle of attack, an aerodynamic stall, and a hard landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the glider reported that desert storm fronts had been moving in and out of the area during her flight. When the wind increased, and the glider was unable to maintain or regain altitude due to an absence of thermal activity the pilot elected to land off airport between two approaching storms. The pilot lowered the nose to maintain airspeed; however, during the landing flare, the glider encountered a gusting wind and a downdraft, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall about 3-4 ft above the ground. The glider then landed hard, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the glider that would have precluded normal 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).

  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on equipment
  • Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Downdraft-Effect on operation
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Attain/maintain not possible

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_WPR24LA273.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 ↗