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NYC83LA179 · Sportavia-Putzer RF5B SPERBER RF5B SPERB

16 Jul 1983 · WARREN, VT, United States

Sportavia-Putzer RF5B SPERBER RF5B SPERB · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

From Rutland - Southern Vermont Regional Airport (RUT) to OB7 · WARREN, VT

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Event

NTSB case
NYC83LA179
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

Sportavia-Putzer RF5B SPERBER RF5B SPERB

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
N55WV
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Rutland - Southern Vermont Regional Airport (RUT), Rutland, VTTo OB7 · WARREN, VT
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
Loss of control in flight
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 › Clearance, misjudged
  • Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Warren, VT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE GLIDER WING ENCOUNTERED HIGH GRASS DURING LANDING IN GUSTY WIND. THIS WAS A MOTOR GLIDER AND THE LANDING WAS MADE TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY TO ALLOW ROOM FOR THE SOARING CLUB LANDING ON A PARALLEL GRASS STRIP TO THE LEFT OF THE MAIN RWY. DURING THE APPROACH A GUST OF WIND RAISED THE LEFT WING OF THE MOTOR GLIDER AND THE RIGHT WING CAUGHT IN SOME TALL GRASS BESIDE THE RWY. THE ACFT TURNED ABOUT 90 DEGREES AND CAME TO AN ABRUPT STOP. THE WINGS AND PROPELLER WERE DAMAGED.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC83LA179
Event ID
20001214X43925
Case number
NYC83LA179
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: 1cb5e5e0e262b04b528d9cf91fbff8891585ed254512a0a9770eecce8a7c94ac; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:45:53.036Z.