NYC83LA229 · Burkhart Grob FLUGZEUGBAU G103 FLUGZEUGBA
Burkhart Grob FLUGZEUGBAU G103 FLUGZEUGBA · Accident: undershoot on approach
From JULIAN, PA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83LA229
- 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 FLUGZEUGBAU G103 FLUGZEUGBA
- Aircraft type
- Grob FLUGZEUGBAU G103
- 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
- N906BG
- Operator
- James F. Pletcher · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From JULIAN, PATo 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 pattern final
- 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
- Dual student › Compensation for wind conditions, improper
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PLT & INSTRUCTOR (CFI) WERE PRACTICING PATTERN WORK & LANDINGS. DURING THE 1ST 3 PATTERNS, THE WIND WAS CALM, HOWEVER, BY THE TIME THEY WERE ON THEIR 4TH PATTERN, THE WIND INCREASED & BECAME GUSTY. WHILE THE STUDENT WAS FLYING THE PATTERN, HE ALLOWED THE GLIDER TO GET LOW ON BASE LEG. THE CFI BELIEVED THERE WOULD BE NO PROBLEM, BUT ON FINAL, THE AIRSPEED DECREASED & THE CFI TOOK CONTROL. HE LOWERED THE NOSE TO GAIN AIRSPEED, BUT THEY ENCOUNTERED UNEXPECTED, SEVERE SINK & WIND GRADIENTS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE GLIDER CONTACTED THE TOP OF CORN GROWING NEAR THE END OF THE RWY. THE RIGHT WING ENCOUNTERED MORE OF THE CORN THAN THE LEFT WING & THE GLIDER SWERVED RIGHT & IMPACTED THE GROUND SIDEWAYS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83LA229
- Event ID
- 20001214X44340
- Case number
- NYC83LA229
- 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: 9da424cc0bb01e11a4b7897060437a7b87cbcf64fbdddeb7bc68ac415f88d0e6; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:28:01.356Z.