IAD99FA004 · Cessna 305A
Cessna 305A and Burkhart Grob G 103C · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD99FA004
- 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
- 0
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 305A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 305
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N5213G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Warren-Sugarbush Airport (0B7)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Burkhart Grob G 103C
- Aircraft type
- Grob G-103
- 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
- N103VT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Warren-Sugarbush Airport (0B7)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not performed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Emergency procedure, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Warren, VT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
During takeoff for a glider tow operation, the towplane and the glider both became airborne. An FAA Inspector witnessed the takeoff and said his attention was drawn to the 'erratic pitch changes' of the glider. The glider pilot's canopy was open, and the pilot repeatedly attempted to close the canopy. Pitch changes and climbs above the tow plane accompanied each attempt to close the canopy. As the towrope reached a vertical position, the towplane struck the ground, nosed over, and came to rest inverted. The towrope separated, and the glider continued past the towplane, rolled left to an inverted position and impacted the ground. The towrope in use at the time of the accident employed a 'Sweitzer Ring' to attach at the tow plane and a 'Tost Ring' to attach at the glider. Both rings were attached to their respective airplanes and both release mechanisms were operational. According to the 1998 Soaring Flight Manual sponsored by the Soaring Society of America: 'When the sailplane is too high, it can pull the tail of the towplane up, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the towplane to take off... If corrective action is not taken, the only alternative for the tow pilot is to release the towline...If for any reason, the sailplane pilot loses sight of the towplane, he should release immediately.'
Probable cause
The glider pilot's failure to perform the emergency tow release and abort the takeoff. A factor in the accident was the glider pilot's improper decision to make repeated attempts to close the canopy in flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD99FA004
- Event ID
- 20001211X11267
- Case number
- IAD99FA004
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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. 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: cca0be515b9edea69b4463c8878cd0d50419aa3d1c98e5009e14ba6edbe42d79; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:22:15.546Z.