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NYC92DGT01 · Schempp-Hirth DISCUS BT

5 Apr 1992 · JULIAN, PA, United States

Schempp-Hirth DISCUS BT · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing

From Ridge Soaring Gliderport (79N) to Ridge Soaring Gliderport (79N)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC92DGT01
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

Schempp-Hirth DISCUS BT

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
N224WT
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ridge Soaring Gliderport (79N), Unionville, PATo Ridge Soaring Gliderport (79N)
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
Landing
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
In flight collision with object
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Tree(s)
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 › Speed brakes, inadvertent use

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

WITNESSES NOTICED THE SPEED BRAKES WERE DEPLOYED, WHILE THE GLIDER WAS BEING TOWED DURING TAKEOFF AND CLIMB. ATTEMPTS TO RADIO THE PILOT AND ALERT HIM OF THE SPEED BRAKE POSITION WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THE GLIDER WAS RELEASED AT 2900 FEET, AND IT DESCENDED WITH THE SPEED BRAKES STILL DEPLOYED. THE PILOT TRIED TO RETURN AND LAND, BUT DID NOT REACH THE GLIDERPORT. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE GLIDER STRUCK A TREE AND WAS DAMAGED AS THE PILOT WAS MAKING AN OFF GLIDERPORT LANDING.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT USE OF THE SPEED BRAKES, WHICH RESULTED IN AN EXCESSIVE RATE OF DESCENT. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC92DGT01
Event ID
20001211X14492
Case number
NYC92DGT01
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: 08ba922ca4c50da85eb0995bdea18dfed4ac25ac664160a96308f59e6f28c733; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:03:20.315Z.