ERA10LA325 · Schleicher ASH26 E
Schleicher ASH26 E · Accident: hard landing
From Tullahoma Regional Airport William Northern Field (THA) to Tullahoma Regional Airport William Northern Field (THA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10LA325
- 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 ASH26 E
- Aircraft type
- Schleicher ASH26
- 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
- N26EL
- Operator
- Jeffrey A Long · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tullahoma Regional Airport William Northern Field (THA), Tullahoma, TNTo Tullahoma Regional Airport William Northern Field (THA), Tullahoma, TN
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Hard 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 systems
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot departed in the self-launching motorized glider for the local flight. He stated that it was a smooth day with no lift, and he had to use the engine several times in order to stay aloft. While returning to the departure airport, at approximately 1,000 feet, the pilot raised the engine and attempted to start it. He received a battery warning indication in the cockpit and was unable to start the engine with the electrical system. The pilot selected a field for landing, but continued to troubleshoot the engine. The pilot successfully restarted the engine, abandoned the landing approach and flew for an additional few seconds before the engine stopped again and the pilot executed a forced landing to a second field. He stated that he was not properly configured to land and landed hard, which resulted in substantial damage to the glider's fuselage. Examination of the glider revealed that the engine start system and propeller pylon extension system could not be activated due to a dead battery. A charge was applied and subsequent attempts were still unsuccessful. The battery was charged overnight and examination behind the instrument panel the next day revealed a loose cannon plug. The plug was retained in place by two clips, one of which was disconnected. Once the cannon plug was retightened, all systems routed through the panel (fuel pump, propeller pylon extension, engine start) energized immediately and functioned as designed. The cannon plug was difficult to access and the manner in which the plug came loose could not be determined.
Probable cause
A complete loss of electrical and engine power over unsuitable terrain due to a cannon plug that became disconnected for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10LA325
- Event ID
- 20100622X43334
- Case number
- ERA10LA325
- 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: 29602d3ae676907437978cbc979f324be6dedb2b5519213e14321817010af31c; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:29:12.583Z.