CHI91FA212 · Centrair PEGASUS 101B PEGASUS 10
Centrair PEGASUS 101B PEGASUS 10 and Zulu Hotel Slingsby KESTREL 19 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91FA212
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Centrair PEGASUS 101B PEGASUS 10
- Aircraft type
- Centrair PEGASUS 101
- 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
- N126CC
- Operator
- Shatzeu, Albert · 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Slingsby KESTREL 19
- Aircraft type
- Slingsby KESTREL 19
- 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
- N1954E
- Operator
- Zulu Hotel
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual separation, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual separation, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE GLIDER PILOT REPORTED HE RETURNED TO THE UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT WITH INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO CONDUCT A STANDARD (LEFT-HAND TURNS) TRAFFIC PATTERN. HE ENTERED A RIGHT DOWNWIND AND MADE SEVERAL TRANSMISSIONS REGARDING HIS POSITION AND INTENTIONS ON A COMMON TRAFFIC ADVISORY FREQUENCY. THE PILOT WAS ESTABLISHED ON FINAL APPROACH ABOUT 1/2 MILE FROM THE END OF THE RUNWAY WHEN HE SAW 'A GLIDER...OVERFLYING ME AND DESCENDING INTO MY FLIGHT PATH.' THE GLIDERS COLLIDED. THE PILOT OF THE LOWER GLIDER 'DEPLOYED SPOILERS IN AN ATTEMPT TO DESCEND AS RAPIDLY AS POSSIBLE BELOW THE OTHER GLIDER'S FLIGHT PATH. I MAINTAINED CONTROL TO THE GROUND ALTHOUGH MY DESCENT RATE WAS VERY HIGH.' BOTH GLIDERS IMPACTED TERRAIN IN A BEAN FIELD ABOUT 1/4 TO 1/2 MILE FROM THE RUNWAY.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF BOTH PILOTS TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT AND ENSURE ADEQUATE SEPARATION DURING TRAFFIC PATTERN OPERATIONS. A RELATED FACTOR IS THE NONSTANDARD UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT PROCEDURES USED BY N126CC.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91FA212
- Event ID
- 20001212X17484
- Case number
- CHI91FA212
- 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: a73c164e043aa0312502c7b0c91c83b06f231df87f03c6977c0614379562585e; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:24:17.514Z.