ATL92LA093 · Schreder RS-15
Schreder RS-15 · Accident: overrun on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92LA093
- 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
Schreder RS-15
- Aircraft type
- Schreder RS-15
- 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
- N17TM
- Operator
- Smalley, James W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
- Overrun
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ANOTHER GLIDER PILOT, WHO WAS THERMAL SOARING ABOUT 1/2 MILE FROM THE ACCIDENT SITE, OBSERVED THE GLIDER APPROACH A FIELD AT LOW LEVEL. IT CIRCLED THE FIELD IN A WIDE RADIUS TURN, THEN MOVED ABOUT A QUARTER MILE AWAY. IT THEN BEGAN TO CIRCLE IN A TIGHT RADIUS TURN. THE OBSERVING PILOT LOOKED AWAY FOR ABOUT 30 SECONDS, AND WHEN HE LOOKED AT THE GLIDER AGAIN, IT WAS IN A STEEP TURN. THE GLIDER ALIGNED WITH A TWO LANE ROAD THEN SWERVED ABRUPTLY LEFT INTO A LINE OF TREES. A GROUND WITNESS SAID THAT THE GLIDER APPEARED TO ATTEMPT A LANDING IN THE FIELD. THE PILOT OVERRAN THE FIELD & A GO-AROUND WAS MADE BECAUSE OF OBSTACLES. THE LANDING WAS ABORTED BY PULLING UP. THE GLIDER NEARLY STALLED & TURNED TO LAND ON THE ROAD. THE LEFT WING HIT A ROAD SIGN, VEERED LEFT, & STRUCK A TREE. PAINT TRANSFER MARKS WERE FOUND ON THE ROAD WHICH CORRELATED WITH SCRAPES ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE GLIDER'S FUSELAGE. EXAMINATION OF THE GLIDER, AFTER THE ACCIDENT, DID NOT REVEAL ANY FLIGHT CONTROL MALFUNCTIONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S MISJUDGED APPROACH TO THE OPEN FIELD, WHICH RESULTED IN THE FORCED LANDING ON THE OBSTACLE LINED ROAD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92LA093
- Event ID
- 20001211X14562
- Case number
- ATL92LA093
- 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: fc1f314eaecd96d477f2e413ca049e5176f553de3a58639c4c2948a3e584c6b8; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:13:51.459Z.