MIA08CA172 · Schweizer 2-33A
Waco Transport Schweizer 2-33A · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Wurtsboro-Sullivan County Airport (N82) to Wurtsboro-Sullivan County Airport (N82)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08CA172
- 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
Schweizer 2-33A
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer 2
- 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
- N17885
- Operator
- Waco Transport
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wurtsboro-Sullivan County Airport (N82), Wurtsboro, NYTo Wurtsboro-Sullivan County Airport (N82), Wurtsboro, NY
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certified flight instructor (CFI) of a Schweizer SGS2-33A glider stated that the accident flight was his first training flight with the student. He reviewed the student’s logbook and ascertained that he had a total of 25 flight hours in gliders. The CFI gave the student pilot ground instructions regarding speed limitations, pattern and approach speeds, and pattern entry execution. The student then performed the launch and tow to 2,500 feet above ground level, and the in-flight maneuvers were uneventful. During the approach to land, the CFI instructed the student pilot to "make a shallow left turn to get closer to runway 23;" however, the student pilot turned right. The CFI repeated "turn left," but the student pilot again turned right. The CFI advised the student pilot that he was taking control of the glider. He said that he repeated this to the student pilot but he did not respond nor did he relinquish control of the glider. Consequently, the glider impacted nose first into the ground. Examination of the glider by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector revealed that the wings and fuselage were buckled.
Probable cause
The failure of the dual student to relinquish flight control of the glider.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08CA172
- Event ID
- 20081003X42128
- Case number
- MIA08CA172
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 278e170a7add178ebe83525f292430d92d6a844055bef1f496cbf901b783e958; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:20:32.581Z.