FTW91FA131 · Schempp-Hirth DISCUS-B
Schempp-Hirth DISCUS-B and PZL-Mielec 55-1 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA131
- 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 · Schempp-Hirth DISCUS-B
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth DISCUS-B
- 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
- JA2413
- Operator
- Atsushi Kodama
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Garner Field (UVA), Uvalde, TXTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
Aircraft 2 · PZL-Mielec 55-1
- Aircraft type
- PZL Mielec 55
- 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
- OH825
- Operator
- Llmasotaboulun Lentokerhary
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Garner Field (UVA), Uvalde, TXTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE GLIDERS COLLIDED AT APPROXIMATELY 6,000 FEET MSL WHILE CLIMBING IN A THERMAL AREA. IN THIS PARTICULAR AREA, APPROXIMATELY 20 GLIDERS WERE MANEUVERING ATTEMPTING TO ATTAIN OPTIMUM LIFT. THIS RESULTED IN OVERLAPPING FLIGHT PATHS. THE PILOT OF JAPANESE REGISTRY JA2413 OBSERVED FINNISH REGISTRY OH825 AND TWO OTHER GLIDERS APPROACHING FROM HIS LEFT AND BELOW HIS ALTITUDE. HE LOST SIGHT OF THE GLIDERS. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, OH825 STRUCK HIS AFT FUSELAGE ON THE LEFT SIDE, WHICH RESULTED IN THE SEPARATION OF HIS EMPENNAGE. PAINT TRANSFER FROM THE RIGHT SIDE CANOPY TRACK AREA OF OH825 WAS FOUND ON THE LEFT SIDE OF JA2413 AT THE 7 O'CLOCK POSITION WHEN VIEWING JA2413 ALONG ITS LONGITUDINAL AXIS FROM THE REAR. ADDITIONAL PAINT TRANSFERS WERE LOCATED AT THE 8 O'CLOCK, 9 O'CLOCK AND 10 O'CLOCK POSITIONS. OH825 CONTINUED GLIDING, BUT IN AN ERRATIC MANNER, EVENTUALLY COLLIDING WITH THE TERRAIN. THE COCKPIT AREA OF OH825 SUSTAINED THE IN-FLIGHT COLLISION DAMAGE. THE PILOT OF JA2413 PARACHUTED TO SAFETY.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE OTHER PILOT TO MAINTAIN AN ADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA131
- Event ID
- 20001212X17550
- Case number
- FTW91FA131
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 2aca6907a2e05547d7f9ff55b07baa1c4b75336ce1434a5495f62ac847d2739d; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:40:01.649Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: registration. The narrative names the Japanese-registered Discus glider "JA2413" throughout ("THE PILOT OF JAPANESE REGISTRY JA2413 OBSERVED FINNISH REGISTRY OH825"); the recorded JA241 is truncated.