- Date
- November 26, 2025, 14:55 local (20:55 UTC)
- Place
- Brownsboro, AL
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Prior to flight
- Aircraft
- N103TBurkhart Grob Luft UND Raumfah G103 Twin Astir Trai
- Defining event
- Prior to flight: Ground handling event
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 14, 2026
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- Case key
- 202242
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 flight instructor’s failure to properly lock the rear canopy prior to flight, which led to the canopy opening during aerotow at low altitude, and a subsequent off-airport landing in a corn field.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
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.
Analysis
The flight instructor and student pilot of the glider were under aerotow. The flight instructor reported that very early during the takeoff, the rear canopy opened. Sitting in the rear seat and controlling the glider, the flight instructor could not close the canopy in flight and believed that continuing the tow was a higher risk than releasing and landing straight ahead. When the glider was near treetop level, the flight instructor released the tow and elected to land in a harvested corn field directly off the end of the runway. Upon touchdown, corn stalks built up in front of the glider’s main wheel, bringing the glider to an abrupt stop upright and pivoting it 180º from the direction of landing, and resulting in substantial damage to the aft fuselage. The flight instructor reported that it was likely that he did not properly close and lock the rear canopy, and that the glider had no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N103T
- Reported as
- Burkhart Grob Luft UND Raumfah G103 Twin Astir Trai
- Category
- Glider
- Serial number
- 3144
- Built
- 1978
- Engine
- N/A, none
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Huntsville Soaring Club
- Registered owner
- Huntsville Soaring Club
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- 3M5 · Moontown Airport, runway 27, 2,000 × 100 ft, grass/turf
- Equipment
- Unknown
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 · 2
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Student pilot
- Medical
- Unknown, Unknown
- Seat
- Front
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Role
- Flight instructor
- Age
- 68
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- BasicMed, With waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Rear
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 1,079 total · 47 in this make and model · 952 as pilot in command · 8 in the last 90 days · 2 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 310° at 15 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 55 °F, dew point 18 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.19 inHg
- Observed at
- MDQ, 8 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KMDQ 262055Z AUTO 31015KT 10SM CLR 13/M08 A3019 RMK A02 T01261076=
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on May 14, 2026, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 6.5 MB in all.