SEA06CA023 · Diamond Aircraft Industries HK 36 TTC
Diamond Aircraft Industries HK 36 TTC · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From Sandpoint Airport (SZT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA06CA023
- 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
Diamond Aircraft Industries HK 36 TTC
- Aircraft type
- Diamond HK-36
- 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
- N543MD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sandpoint Airport (SZT), Sandpoint, IDTo 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
- 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
- On ground/water 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Airspeed, excessive
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he had been practicing short field approaches at the Sandpoint Airport with a flight instructor and then decided to go to his property where he had a private airstrip. The pilot stated that the flight instructor was flying the glider, making a low approach over the airstrip when he unexpectedly decided to land. The airspeed was too high to stop on the remaining runway which was covered with compacted snow. After rolling about 300 feet, the flight instructor applied full throttle for the takeoff. The pilot pointed out the power lines beyond the end of the runway, and the flight instructor stated that they would fly under them. At this time the left wing struck a tractor that was positioned at the end of the airstrip. The wing separated from the airframe and the glider spun around, coming to rest. The pilot stated that there was no mechanical failure or malfunction with the glider at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
Excessive speed for the landing roll and inadequate remedial action for the initial takeoff. An object near the end of the runway and snow covered surface were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA06CA023
- Event ID
- 20051216X01986
- Case number
- SEA06CA023
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2005-12-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8813d0e7ac8afec37785fe65fa90979d82332825e96ec991fb443713a01a8239; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:12:58.651Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative and the aircraft's make and model, which establish these values: aircraft category. The aircraft is a Diamond HK 36 TTC motorglider, and the narrative calls it "the glider" throughout; the NTSB Pre2008 MDB codes it PLFT (Powered-Lift).