GAA16CA489 · Burkhart Grob Flugzeugbau G109 UNDESIGNAT
Burkhart Grob Flugzeugbau G109 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of lift en route
From Lincoln Regional Karl Harder Field (LHM) to Minden-Tahoe Airport (MEV)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA489
- 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
Burkhart Grob Flugzeugbau G109 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Grob G109
- 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
- N909G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lincoln Regional Karl Harder Field (LHM), Lincoln, CATo Minden-Tahoe Airport (MEV), Minden, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 34 years (built 1982)
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of a powered glider reported that while en-route to his planned destination, he became concerned about the glider's capability, even with the engine operating, to clear rising terrain ahead. The pilot further reported that he was advised by air traffic control that the nearest airport was about 5 nautical miles (NM) ahead and along his route. The pilot decided to continue to this airport, even though lower terrain was available behind him. During the diversion into the higher elevation, the pilot reported that the glider was "low over the terrain" and he determined that he had to make an off-airport landing. Subsequently, the pilot landed the glider into trees about ½ NM from the diversion airport.
The right wing and fuselage sustained substantial damage.
The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the powered glider that would have precluded normal operation.
About the time of the accident, at the diversion airport, an automated weather observing system reported the wind at 240 degrees true at 7 knots, a temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 Celsius), and a dew point of 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 Celsius). The airport's elevation was 5,283 feet above mean sea level (MSL) and the density altitude was 7,563 feet above MSL.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration Koch Chart, the powered glider would have experienced a 62% decrease to the normal rate of climb. The high density altitude likely contributed to the glider's inability to clear the trees en-route to the diversion airport.
Probable cause
The pilot's inappropriate decision to continue the flight into higher elevation under high-density altitude conditions, which degraded the glider's climb performance and resulted in impact with trees short of the intended runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA489
- Event ID
- 20160915X31240
- Case number
- GAA16CA489
- 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: 3927ba45f19de41bdb36dff069f2148da88ace403ca3b148e7e218d006fa0ded; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:16:27.438Z.