- Date
- June 22, 2026, 19:15 local (Jun 23, 2026, 00:15 UTC)
- Place
- Whitewater, WI
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 1 uninjured
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Takeoff
- Aircraft
- N3849ABailey-Moyes Dragonfly
- Defining event
- Takeoff: Glider tow event
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Investigation ongoing
- Investigation class
- Class 3
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA
- FAA report
- 20260622007469A
- Case key
- 203218
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Preliminary report
What NTSB knew early in the investigation. It may change in the final report.
On June 22, 2026, about 1915 central daylight time, a Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly, N3849A, was involved in an accident near Whitewater, Wisconsin. The pilot of the Dragonfly was not injured. The pilot of the hang glider in tow was fatally injured. The tow operation was conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a glider tow flight. The Dragonfly, a tow plane with a hang glider in tow, took off and had reached an altitude of about 30 ft above the ground when the pilot of the tow plane felt something through the tow cable. When he looked back, he saw the hang glider pilot hanging from the base bar. The hang glider pilot fell to the ground and was fatally injured. The pilot of the tow plane released the glider, returned to the airport, and landed without further incident. The hang glider came to rest on airport property near the fallen pilot. An inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration examined the harness and carabiner used to attach the glider pilot and no obvious defects were found. The harness and carabiner were retained for further examination.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3849A
- Reported as
- Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 001
- Built
- 1999
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Glider tow · Part 91
- Airport
- 5Y3 · Gutzmer's Twin Oaks Airport, runway 18/36, 2,524 × 140 ft, grass/turf
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.
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 10° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Temperature
- 73 °F, dew point 54 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.07 inHg
- Observed at
- KMSN, 31 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KMSN 222353Z 01010KT 10SM FEW050 SCT075 23/12 A3007 RMK AO2 SLP180 T02330122 10256 20222 53004=
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.