GAA18CA305 · ZS Delta-Bielsko Wroclaw SZD 36 A COBRA 15 A
ZS Delta-Bielsko Wroclaw SZD 36 A COBRA 15 A · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From 2K0 · Monticello, IL to Hammond, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA305
- 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
ZS Delta-Bielsko Wroclaw SZD 36 A COBRA 15 A
- Aircraft type
- ZS Delta Bielsko Wroclaw SZD-36
- 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
- N1075G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2K0 · Monticello, ILTo Hammond, IL
- Aircraft age
- About 44 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
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Wire
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the glider pilot, while skirting rain showers, he was unable to find lift and made an off-airport landing. The pilot made a straight-in approach to a field and noticed that power line poles lined the west side of the field. He made his approach just east of the poles so that he would have access to a road and could load the glider onto a transport trailer. The glider touched down on the dirt field, drifted toward the power line poles, and the left wing struck a guy wire that ran perpendicular to the poles.
The glider sustained substantial damage to the left wing and the left side of the fuselage near the wing root.
The pilot reported that the accident could have been prevented if he had not landed so close to the poles. Further, he should have chosen a field earlier when he had more altitude, circled the field, and landed near the center.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the glider that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s loss of directional control during an off-airport landing and his subsequent failure to maintain clearance from power pole guy wires.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA305
- Event ID
- 20180529X21025
- Case number
- GAA18CA305
- 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: 8891ffcca0ab156b9b788861e82296a77f5e0907d08c1e25640f88c904ced5f8; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:17:38.525Z.