DEN90LA086 · Schweizer SGS 2-33A
Schweizer SGS 2-33A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From 42U to 42U
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90LA086
- 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 2-33A
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS-2
- 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
- N2048T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 42UTo 42U
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Glider launch/tow equipment › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not identified
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT WITH SOLO ENDORSEMENT FOR GLIDERS, REPORTED THAT THE TOW LINE BROKE AT 650 FEET AGL DURING INITIAL CLIMB. HE ELECTED TO RETURN FOR A DOWNWIND LANDING BUT OVERSHOT THE RUNWAY. HE PLANNED AN APPROACH TO ROUGH TERRAIN OFF THE AIRPORT. DURING TOUCHDOWN FLARE, THE RIGHT WING STRUCK A TREE AND THE PLANE SLEWED TO THE RIGHT, STRUCK A DIRT EMBANKMENT, AND CAME TO REST WITH THE TAIL ON A FENCE. THE RIGHT WING WAS BROKEN SEVEN FEET FROM THE TIP, THE NOSE CONE WAS CRUSHED, AND THE ELEVATORS AND FUSELAGE WERE BENT.
Probable cause
SEPARATION OF THE TOW ROPE AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ESTABLISH AN APPROPRIATE DESCENT RATE AS HE RETURNED TO LAND. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE TAILWIND AND THE UNSUITABLE TERRAIN FOR LANDING BEYOND THE RUNWAY END.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90LA086
- Event ID
- 20001212X22898
- Case number
- DEN90LA086
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-04-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 08224aae16261d9881f59297b0da7227297f4eea5b95af8e43a4d585328dbc33; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:31:35.696Z.