WPR26LA158 · Alexander Schleicher Gmbh & Co ASH 31 MI
Alexander Schleicher Gmbh & Co ASH 31 MI · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR26LA158
- 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
- Ongoing
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Alexander Schleicher Gmbh & Co ASH 31 MI
- Aircraft type
- Schleicher ASH-31
- 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
- N77UK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2013)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 engine power (total)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On April 13, 2026, about 1051 Pacific standard time, an experimental Alexander Schleicher GMBH and Co., Ash 31 Mi Glider, N77UK, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Williams, California. The pilot sustained minor injuries. The glider was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The pilot reported that he departed from Williams Gliderport (CN12), Williams, California, in the self-launching motorglider. During climbout, about 200 ft above ground level, the engine lost power. The pilot verified that the emergency fuel pump was on and then reviewed his landing options. There were power lines straight ahead, so he opted to perform a right turn back to the runway. However, during the turn, the right wingtip struck terrain. Subsequently, the glider’s nose and main gear impacted a plowed field and resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and wings. Witnesses located at the airport reported observing the glider depart uneventfully until it passed behind a hangar and was no longer visible. Shortly thereafter, the witnesses observed the glider again in a steep right turn. The glider was recovered for further examination.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR26LA158
- Event ID
- 20260413202810
- Case number
- WPR26LA158
- 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: 17bd34a9ede72107d13ba97643f72148eaad1bbe098a93741530a6267dffac9d; retrieved 2026-09-16T21:13:26.298Z.