ERA17LA048 · Schweizer SGS126 E
Schweizer SGS126 E · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin on approach
From Hawks Nest Airport (4TN3) to Hawks Nest Airport (4TN3)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA048
- 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
Schweizer SGS126 E
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer SGS126
- 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
- N65968
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hawks Nest Airport (4TN3), Moscow, TNTo Hawks Nest Airport (4TN3), Moscow, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1974)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A tow plane pilot on the ground reported that he watched the glider fly for about 20 minutes after it was released from the tow plane. After the glider turned onto the left downwind approach to land and while about 300 ft above ground level (agl), he saw the glider enter a right 360° turn while on the base leg, followed shortly after by a 180° right turn. The glider then entered an aerodynamic stall/spin from about 100 ft agl and descended into trees. Although the glider pilot stated that he was unable to recall the sequence of events that occurred after entering the traffic pattern, he did not believe that there were any mechanical anomalies with the glider that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that the pilot did not maintain adequate airspeed and exceeded the glider's critical angle of attack, which resulted in the aerodynamic stall/spin.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed and his exceedance of the glider’s critical angle of attack while maneuvering at low altitude, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall/spin.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA048
- Event ID
- 20161117X82522
- Case number
- ERA17LA048
- 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, coordinates. 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: 5633246e985e38636bd39c199681f794d624ba511bedfd7c1d658c5464113b01; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:50:53.756Z.