- Date
- June 9, 2007, 10:04 local (18:04 UTC)
- Place
- Clear, AK
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N621CPSchleicher ASK-21
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 29, 2007
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- Parties
- FAA Fairbanks FSDO-01
- FAA report
- 20070609010899A
- Case key
- 65961
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The dual student's misjudged distance/altitude during the final approach to land, and the flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the student, which resulted in an undershoot, and substantial damage.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The flight instructor was conducting student training in the airport traffic pattern under Title 14, CFR Part 91. On short final the dual student deployed full spoilers, resulting in the glider touching down short of the runway. The nose wheel of the glider impacted the edge of the runway threshold, damaging the landing gear attachment and the fuselage.
Factual narrative
On June 9, 2007, about 1004 Alaska daylight time, a Schleicher ASK-21 glider, N621CP, sustained substantial damage when it landed short of the runway at the Clear Airport, Clear, Alaska. The airplane was being operated by Civil Air Patrol Inc, Fairbanks, Alaska, as a visual flight rules (VFR) instructional flight under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when the accident occurred. The flight instructor and student pilot were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed.
In a written statement to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) dated July 13, the instructor wrote that he was providing instruction to the student pilot, and that on short final the student deployed full spoilers causing the glider to touch down short of the runway threshold. He wrote that the nose wheel impacted the leading edge of the runway, which damaged the nose wheel mount and fiberglass fuselage. According to the pilot, there were no known mechanical anomalies with the glider prior to the accident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N621CP
- Reported as
- Schleicher ASK-21
- Category
- Glider
- Serial number
- 21708
- Engine
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Civil Air Patrol Inc
- Registered owner
- Civil Air Patrol Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- PACL · Clear, AK
- Airport
- PACL · Clear, runway 01, 4,000 × 100 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Flight instructor
- Age
- 68
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine sea, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- March 1, 2006
- Seat
- Rear
- Flight hours
- 5,481 total · 60 in this make and model · 5,340 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 70 °F
Docket · 1
The files NTSB released with the investigation on October 22, 2007, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 292 KB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.