GAA17CA063 · Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau DUO DISCUS
Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau DUO DISCUS · Accident: aircraft/propeller/rotor contact with person during landing
From Eagle Field (09PA) to Eagle Field (09PA)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA063
- 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
Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau DUO DISCUS
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth DUO DISCUS
- 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
- N484KS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eagle Field (09PA), Port Matilda, PATo Eagle Field (09PA), Port Matilda, PA
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2016)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Aircraft/propeller/rotor contact with person
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of a glider reported that during the landing roll, near the location where he wanted to stop, he felt a "thump." He further reported that he observed a person lying on the ground on the runway and did not see the bystander previously.
According to the pilot-rated passenger, who was also the airport manager, the bystander was taking photographs of the glider and had moved onto the runway surface during the landing roll. Subsequently, the bystander was struck by the left wing. He further reported that he also did not see the bystander before the collision.
The airport manager reported that the airport had a sign near the runway, which stated "Caution Aircraft Operations." Postaccident, the airport manager reported that he installed cones delineating the boundary of the runway and added an additional sign stating "Remain Behind Cones."
The bystander sustained a serious injury.
The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the glider that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The bystander's decision to walk onto the runway, which resulted in him being struck by the glider's left wing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA063
- Event ID
- 20161114X85551
- Case number
- GAA17CA063
- 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, damage. 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: eafcdc60c1d4eb29d11a7164b9d4c3001ed6966db5bb1953bc4f80295784f4e8; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:49:52.555Z.