Serious incident to the Rolladen-Schneider LS8 registered D-4776 and to the Schempp Hirth Ventus registered D-5063 on 05/08/2021 at Montluçon-Guéret
Collision en vol entre deux planeurs, atterrissage d'urgence, lors d'un vol d'entrainement à une compétition
On the second day of training for the World Gliding Championships, two gliders collided as one of them was joining a group of gliders making right-hand spirals in an uplift. Neither pilot was aware of the presence of the other glider. The pilot of D-4776 was not able to see D-5063 because it was approaching from behind. The pilot of D-5063 used another glider as a reference, which was, according to him, located around 100 m in front of him, and he did not detect D-4776 because of the position of the latter in relation to his reference. Despite the presence of FLARMs on board both gliders, the pilots did not detect their respective presence, due essentially to the large number of gliders in the vicinity. After the collision, the pilot of D-5063 performed an emergency landing at the aerodrome, after notifying the competition organisation of his emergency situation, whereas the pilot of D-4776 landed at the aerodrome.