Accident to the Schleicher ASK21 registered F-CIAT on 14/08/2023 at Issoire

This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation. As accurate as the translation may be, the original text in French is the work of reference.

Note: the following information is based on a video and the instructor’s and student pilot’s statements. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.

1. History of the flight

The student pilot took off with her instructor from Issoire-Le Broc aerodrome at around 15:05 for a series of runway circuits to check her skills. As the runway circuits were correctly flown, the instructor proposed that the student pilot carry out a supervised solo flight.

The student performed a towed take-off from runway 18L. The towed take-off and flight proceeded normally. The student was in radio contact with her instructor.

After a few minutes, she directly joined the beginning of the downwind leg in order to land on runway 18L. When carrying out the flare, she extended the speedbrakes. The pitch attitude decreased, the glider touched down hard at the beginning of the runway, before the displaced threshold and then bounced by a height of roughly ten metres. The student then made a large nose-down input. The glider collided with the ground leading to the failure of the fuselage.

2. Additional information

2.1 Meteorological information

According to the instructor and the student pilot, the local weather conditions were CAVOK, with a wind of 5 to 10 kts on the runway axis and a temperature of 32°C.

2.2 Runway

Runway 18L, reserved for gliders, has a threshold displaced by 70 m and a landing distance available of 785 m. The glider initially touched down just after the marking delimiting the runway, i.e. nearly 70 m before the displaced threshold.

2.3 Student pilot’s statement

The 19-year-old student pilot was in training to obtain a sailplane licence. She had totalled around 11 flight hours, all performed in the previous 30 days and all on the ASK21 in dual control.

She had observed on the downwind leg, that she was a little high and decided to extend the speed brakes to intercept the approach slope. On final, she assessed her position as being too low and therefore retracted the speed brakes. She indicated that at this point, although her speed was correct, the glider did not seem so stable as usual on passing over a field of corn.

She indicated that she applied the method learnt during her training, namely extending the speed brakes half-way while making a nose-up input on the stick to flare. She believed that she had extended the speed brakes too abruptly, causing hard contact with the runway and then made too big an input on the stick, causing the bounce. She specified that on seeing that she was going to collide with the ground, the retracted the speed brakes again.

Immediately after this action, the ASK21 bounced. She explained that she tried to maintain her speed by pushing on the stick. She reported that over the radio she had heard her instructor tell her to take a nose-down attitude. She indicated that she did not have time to carry out another action before the glider collided with the ground.

2.4 Instructor’s statement

The instructor indicated that the circuits both in dual and solo flight had gone well.

She described flight over the corn field as tricky due to turbulence. She considered that her student’s approach slope was in the acceptable lower limit to land on runway 18.

She explained that landing before the displaced threshold was a habit in the flying club in order to increase the landing distance available.

In her opinion, her student’s flare was too shallow and late. She specified that abruptly extending the speed brakes may have caused the hard landing  and that the large nose-up input could explain the height of the bounce.

She also explained that her student’s family were watching the flight and their presence might have increased her student’s stress for her first solo supervised flight.

January 2024