LAX02LA231 · Schleicher ASW-27
Schleicher ASW-27 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Tonopah Airport (TPH) to Tonopah Airport (TPH)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX02LA231
- 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
Schleicher ASW-27
- Aircraft type
- Schleicher ASW-27
- 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
- N127HC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tonopah Airport (TPH), Tonopah, NVTo Tonopah Airport (TPH), Tonopah, NV
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 on ground/water
- 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
- Other institution › Procedure inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
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 initiation phase of an air tow takeoff launch, the pilot lost directional control of his glider when a wing contacted the runway. The glider veered off the runway and collided with a spectator and an automobile. The spectator was located ahead of the glider, but within an area that was supposed to be devoid of personnel. The pilot's ground crew was supposed to support the glider's wing during the beginning of the takeoff until the pilot acquired sufficient aerodynamic control to prevent the wings from contacting the ground. However, when the glider was connected to the tow plane, the tow plane never came to a complete stop. During the takeoff, the glider was accelerated in a slingshot manner out of the ground crew's hand. The accident occurred during a sanctioned Soaring Society of America aviation event (air race) known as the United States 15-Meter National Soaring Championships. Event spokespersons acknowledged that the area in where the collision occurred, called the "clear zone," had not been identified with specific markers, "Do Not Cross" signs, or physical barriers. They indicated, however, that the injured spectator was familiar with the airport, and evidently was 3.5 feet closer to the runway than he should have been, for personal reasons. The lateral distance between the runway's edge and the spectator was 78 feet. The pilot subsequently reported that had he held his brakes until the towrope was tight and stable, he would not have lost control. Also, the pilot reported that as soon as he observed that his course was diverging from the runway centerline, he could have pulled the tow release thus aborting the takeoff. Several of the aviation event's management and organization officials witnessed the accident. The National Soaring Championships Chair reported that, henceforth, its procedures were being changed by keeping the area in front of the glider's takeoff paths clear of nonparticipant personnel and vehicles.
Probable cause
Air event management's failure to adequately separate spectators and vehicles from the takeoff path. Also causal was the glider pilot's failure to maintain directional control and failure to abort the takeoff attempt in a timely manner.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX02LA231
- Event ID
- 20020724X01192
- Case number
- LAX02LA231
- 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: f266a5994e844f4415e20209464d7402c79105b29f7cc376fd23b57dbc61949e; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:37:09.074Z.