WPR14CA292 · Jonker Sailplanes (PTY) Ltd JS1-C
Jonker Sailplanes (PTY) Ltd JS1-C · Accident: windshear or thunderstorm on approach
From Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK) to Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14CA292
- 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
Jonker Sailplanes (PTY) Ltd JS1-C
- Aircraft type
- Jonker Sailplanes (pty) JS1
- 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
- N501WG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK), Truckee, CATo Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK), Truckee, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2013)
- 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
- Windshear or thunderstorm
- 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 that following an uneventful flight, he checked the weather at his destination airport, noting wind was from 220 degrees at 7 knots, gusting to 16 knots. The pilot initiated an approach to landing on runway 20, however, while on final approach, the glider began to descend rapidly and roll to the left. The pilot applied opposite control inputs and noted that the glider began to turn to the right prior to impacting terrain slightly downslope from the runway. Recorded weather observations at the airport about 23 minutes after the accident revealed that the wind was from 250 degrees at 11 knots, gusting to 18 knots. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control in gusting wind conditions while on final approach to the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14CA292
- Event ID
- 20140714X53809
- Case number
- WPR14CA292
- 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: 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 2014-07-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: aad904de4b6fa1e6e929bbd951c5a810f78b894eb9481dc381e98cb8b2cea5d1; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:53:56.977Z.