CEN09CA475 · Glasflugel Standard Libelle
Glasflugel Standard Libelle · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Faribault Municipal Airport-Liz Wall Strohfus Field (FBL) to Faribault Municipal Airport-Liz Wall Strohfus Field (FBL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09CA475
- 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
Glasflugel Standard Libelle
- Aircraft type
- Glasflugel STANDARD LIBELLE
- 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
- N3872
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Faribault Municipal Airport-Liz Wall Strohfus Field (FBL), Faribault, MNTo Faribault Municipal Airport-Liz Wall Strohfus Field (FBL), Faribault, MN
- 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 reported no anomalies with the glider's flight controls during the preflight inspections that preceded two flights on the day of the accident. The first flight was 40 minutes in duration and no anomalies were noted with the glider. The second flight, which was the accident flight, was about 2 1/2 hours in duration. When the pilot completed a before-landing check of the dive brakes, the closure of the dive brakes was normal. During the downwind leg of the approach, the dive brakes were extended and locked in place. The pilot stated that during the dive brake extension, they "seemed difficult to open, as sometimes happens" in the accident glider. The pilot stated that the dive brakes could not be retracted during the approach and that she had to fly a closer traffic pattern to land on the runway, resulting in a steep approach. The right wing tip struck the ground and the glider experienced a hard landing on the grass landing area adjacent to Runway 30. Damage to the glider included a fuselage separation several feet forward of the empennage, resulting in substantial damage. Postaccident photos of the glider show the dive brakes retracted. The pilot received minor injuries. The pilot stated the dive brakes operated normally after the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's inability to maintain proper airspeed on approach to land.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09CA475
- Event ID
- 20090729X24815
- Case number
- CEN09CA475
- 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, 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: ccd8a8d9333a8be220bf893913381bd83750cb622966de377b064ae7274d9941; retrieved 2026-09-15T12:03:49.274Z.