BFO93LA095 · Schweizer SGS-233A
Schweizer SGS-233A · Accident: undershoot on approach
From N17 · Endicott, NY to Greater Binghamton/Edwin A Link field (BGM)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA095
- 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
- 0 · 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
Schweizer SGS-233A
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS-233
- 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
- N17870
- Operator
- Triple Cities Soaring Society
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From N17 · Endicott, NYTo Greater Binghamton/Edwin A Link field (BGM)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Undershoot
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE 2 PLACE GLIDER WAS TOWED ON A FLIGHT FROM ENDICOTT TO BINGHAMTON, NY. A PRIVATE PILOT WAS FLYING THE GLIDER AND AN INSTRUCTOR WAS ALONG AS AN INTENDED PASSENGER ON THIS FLIGHT. AS THE AIRCRAFT APPROACHED THE DESTINATION, THE GLIDER WAS RELEASED FROM BEING TOWED AND WAS MANEUVERED TO LAND ON RUNWAY 34. THE APPROACH TO RUNWAY 34 WAS OVER RISING TERRAIN WITH A CLIFF SHORT OF THE THRESHOLD. ON FINAL APPROACH, THE GLIDER ENCOUNTERED AN EXCESSIVE SINK RATE. SEEING THAT THE GLIDER WOULD NOT REACH THE RUNWAY, THE INSTRUCTOR OPTED TO TAKE CONTROL. HE TURNED THE GLIDER TO AVOID RISING TERRAIN AND OBSTRUCTIONS, AND TRIED TO LAND IN A SUITABLE AREA. HOWEVER, BEFORE ROLLING OUT OF THE TURN, A WINGTIP CONTACTED TERRAIN AND THE GLIDER CRASH LANDED. DURING A POST-ACCIDENT EXAMINATION, THE SPOILERS WERE FOUND IN THE 'UP' POSITION, BUT THE INVESIGATION DID NOT VERIFY WHETHER THE SPOILERS WERE EXTENDED BEFORE OR AFTER IMPACT. THE INSTRUCTOR HAD ABOUT 247 HOURS OF FLIGHT TIME (IN GLIDERS) AND THE OTHER PILOT HAD ABOUT 35 HOURS FLIGHT TIME.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE FLIGHT CREW. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE DOWNDRAFT ON FINAL APPROACH, THE TERRAIN CONDITIONS (CLIFF & OBSTRUCTIONS) NEAR THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY, AND THE LACK OF RELATIVE EXPERIENCE FOR EACH OF THE PILOTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA095
- Event ID
- 20001211X12324
- Case number
- BFO93LA095
- 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: 0929c7f4feed49baac2d72ed3dbe708bd2b2d839a3655c15a3fcdb3521fb4918; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:56:43.449Z.