ATL87LA199 · Burkhart Grob G-103A
Burkhart Grob G-103A · Accident: undershoot on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87LA199
- 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
Burkhart Grob G-103A
- Aircraft type
- Grob G-103
- 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
- N930BG
- Operator
- Wilson Brown
- 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
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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(cfi) › Descent, misjudged
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Wind information, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THIS WAS THE SECOND FLIGHT OF THE DAY WITH THE STUDENT. THEY HAD RELEASED FROM AN AIR TOW AT 1,500 FEET AGL. THE INSTRUCTOR WAS DEMONSTRATING GLIDE SLOPE CONTROL FOR BEST FINAL GLIDE. WHEN THE SAILPLANE WAS ABOUT 1,000 FEET AGL AND ONE MILE NW OF THE AIRPORT HE TURNED TOWARD THE RUNWAY AND NOTED A SINK RATE OF ABOUT 8 KNOTS. HE INCREASED SPEED AND THE SINK RATE WENT TO 10 KNOTS. THESE SINK RATES TRANSLATE TO ABOUT 810 AND 1013 FEET PER MINUTE, RESPECTIVELY. THIS WOULD HAVE PERMITTED THE SAILPLANE TO COVER A MAXIMUM DISTANCE OF 1 1/2 MILES. TWO SETS OF POWERLINESAND A CHAIN LINK FENCE WERE BETWEEN THE SAILPLANE AND THE RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH THE FENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87LA199
- Event ID
- 20001213X31391
- Case number
- ATL87LA199
- 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: 2264238e4d1fe71a8e37b247f986ba8e6b2ad5a26cf70cf5eace49763a8b4d3d; retrieved 2026-09-23T12:54:00.805Z.