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ERA15CA005 · HPH Ltd 304CZ

4 Oct 2014 · Pikeville, TN, United States

HPH Ltd 304CZ · Accident: loss of lift while maneuvering

From Marion County Airport - Brown Field (APT) to Marion County Airport - Brown Field (APT)

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Event

NTSB case
ERA15CA005
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

HPH Ltd 304CZ

Aircraft type
HPH 304
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
N304AK
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Marion County Airport - Brown Field (APT), Jasper, TNTo Marion County Airport - Brown Field (APT), Jasper, TN
Aircraft age
About 13 years (built 2001)
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
Maneuvering
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
Loss of lift
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Pole
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
  • Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot stated that the glider had been aloft for about 30 minutes prior to experiencing a loss of lift. After selecting a field for an off-airport landing, the pilot maneuvered the glider towards the field, and upon touchdown, the left wing contacted a pole. The glider subsequently pivoted left and came to rest upright, resulting in substantial damage to the tail boom. The pilot stated there were no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies of the glider that would have precluded normal operation.

Probable cause

A loss of aerodynamic lift, which resulted in an off-airport landing and subsequent impact with a pole.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA15CA005
Event ID
20141005X93420
Case number
ERA15CA005
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: aaa99ba4c6819dd5618f53316a6d1f939bcba6d3ca0666bb88345e839da4a8e3; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:49:51.300Z.