NYC85LA254 · Schweizer SGS 2-33A
Schweizer SGS 2-33A · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From THERMAL RIDGE to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC85LA254
- 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
- N33920
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From THERMAL RIDGETo 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 go-around
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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 › Clearance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Recovery from bounced landing, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A SCHWEIZER N33920, COLLIDED WITH A UTILITY POLE WHILE EXECUTING A GO AROUND AT PREBLE AIRPORT, NY. THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED. THE PLT AND PASSENGER RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES. THE PLT STATED THAT THE FIRST TWO FLIGHTS WERE UNEVENTFUL, BUT NOTICED THE STALL SPEED WAS HIGHER THAN USUAL AND SEEMED TO BE ENTERING A STALL AT A HIGHER SPEED THAN IS RECOMMENDED IN THE MANUAL. APPLYING SPOILERS DID NOT CORRECT THE AIRSPEED,. THE PLT SAID THAT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN PULLINGTHE TRIM TAB CONTROL INSTEAD OF THE SPOILERS. ON THE LANDING THE ACFT BOUNCED. ON PULLUP THE LEFT WING TIP STRUCK A POLE. THE ACFT LANDED IN TREES, THEN SLID FLATLY TO THE GROUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC85LA254
- Event ID
- 20001214X37899
- Case number
- NYC85LA254
- 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: c99f04423f07ad89c793f9de74c0ee55cd5da205def9f32a6013ae811d4990fc; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:39:10.186Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states the glider collided with a utility pole during a go-around at Preble Airport and "THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED".