GAA16CA261 · Rolladen-Schneider OHG LS3 A
Rolladen-Schneider OHG LS3 A · Accident: loss of lift en route
From Blairstown Airport (K1N7) to Blairstown Airport (K1N7)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA261
- 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 OHG LS3 A
- Aircraft type
- Rolladen Schneider Ohg LS3
- 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
- N63761
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Blairstown Airport (K1N7), Blairstown, NJTo Blairstown Airport (K1N7), Blairstown, NJ
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1979)
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, prior to a cross-country glider flight, his preflight weather assessment led him to believe that he would find thermal lift near the ridge enabling him to climb. He reported that when he arrived at the ridge he did not find any thermal lift activity and his circumstance seemed "urgent and imperative" to find an off airport landing area. He recalled that very high trees outlined the 300 meter field where he elected to land. He reported that he made two descending, spiraling patterns over his selected landing site. He recalled that he made a final turn into the field, however the glider's outboard left wing struck several trees and spun the glider counter-clockwise and it impacted the ground. The glider sustained substantial damage to the empennage and the left wing and canopy.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or anomalies with any portion of the glider during the flight that would have prevented normal flight operations.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from trees on final.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA261
- Event ID
- 20160526X60820
- Case number
- GAA16CA261
- 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: 5fb2ca4a035afe42047eb4f570aa8ba3f1b4868350b1614406213090b945513c; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:26:10.626Z.