- Date
- June 7, 1987, 13:30 local (17:30 UTC)
- Place
- Middletown, NY
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Initial climb
- Aircraft
- N98TXSchweizer ASW-20
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 24, 1989
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19870607082499A
- Case key
- 30662
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
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 glider pilot failed to hook up the elevator control cable before launch and during takeoff there was no pitch control. The aircraft pitched up uncontrollably overstressing the rope. The rope broke and the glider impacted hard on a road bouncing 150 feet into a plowed field.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N98TX
- Reported as
- Schweizer ASW-20
- Category
- Glider
- Serial number
- 20062
- Airframe hours
- 289
- Engine
- unknown
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Leopold Schoenauer
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · April 18, 1987
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
- Pilot
- Age
- 58
- Certificate
- Private
- Flight hours
- 1,196 total · 24 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Lowest ceiling
- None
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.