IAD01LA076 · Rolladen-Schneider LS3-A
Rolladen-Schneider LS3-A · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Front Royal Warren County Airport (FRR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD01LA076
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Rolladen-Schneider LS3-A
- Aircraft type
- Rolladen Schneider LS3
- 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
- N113RM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Front Royal Warren County Airport (FRR), Front Royal, VATo 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Object › Tree(s)
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the glider flight, the pilot determined that he lacked sufficient lift to return to his home airport, and he selected an off-airport landing site. The pilot stated he was aware of the trees and wires along his planned approach path, and determined that they would not be a factor. The pilot said that as he maneuvered towards his landing site, he abbreviated and steepened his approach in an effort to touchdown in the first one-third of the field. Just prior to touchdown, the left wing struck a tree, and the glider impacted terrain. According to the pilot, "I set up for an abbreviated approach when I really didn't need to. I rushed the approach and I was high on my base and turn to final. I knew the trees were there, but I really didn't see them as a factor. If I were 2 feet to the right and 3 feet higher, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I just didn't see the obstacle."
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate altitude/clearance from a tree along his final approach path.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD01LA076
- Event ID
- 20010713X01419
- Case number
- IAD01LA076
- 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, coordinates. 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: 61b3da0d93638196da8d1e37d34f3aba289a4f2302257e86a0cecaf6d87951b3; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:55:02.028Z.