GAA16CA156 · Rolladen-Schneider LS8 18
Rolladen-Schneider LS8 18 · Accident
From Blairstown Airport (1N7) to Blairstown Airport (1N7)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA156
- 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
Rolladen-Schneider LS8 18
- Aircraft type
- Rolladen Schneider LS8
- 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
- N16BP
- Operator
- Carlyle, John M. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Blairstown Airport (1N7), Blairstown, NJTo Blairstown Airport (1N7), Blairstown, NJ
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2000)
- 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
- Other
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot of the glider, while performing a cross country flight along a mountain ridge, the pilot could no longer maintain altitude as a result of unfavorable wind conditions. The pilot reported that he elected to execute an off airport landing. He recounted that he selected a suitable landing area, and executed a normal traffic pattern. However, he reported that he encountered a strong downdraft and the glider impacted trees that bordered the selected landing area. The glider sustained substantial damage to both wings.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or anomalies with the glider prior to or during the flight that would have prevented normal flight operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's inability to maintain the glider's descent rate and glide path after encountering a downdraft, resulting in a collision with trees during an off airport landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA156
- Event ID
- 20160323X62352
- Case number
- GAA16CA156
- 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: 41933bdd3664eb7b78121fe8670afdb1f305f2408cf49cd6f2ad3222e02fbdd1; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:14:09.813Z.