- Date
- June 11, 2025, 16:30 local (23:30 UTC)
- Place
- Tonasket, WA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N78AWRolladen Schneider LS-7WL
- Defining event
- Enroute: Loss of lift
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Western Pacific Region
- Parties
- FAA
- FAA report
- 20250611007669A
- Case key
- 200333
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 glider’s encounter with atmospheric conditions where the lift was not sufficient to maintain flight.
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
According to the pilot in the glider, during a cross-country flight, promising cloud formations did not provide lift, as he anticipated. The glider did not have sufficient altitude to reach the airport, and a forced landing ensued. During the landing roll, the glider’s wingtip contacted the gravel surface and precipitated a ground-loop. The glider sustained substantial damage to the aft fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the glider that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N78AW
- Reported as
- Rolladen Schneider LS-7WL
- Category
- Glider
- Serial number
- 7059
- Built
- 1989
- Airframe hours
- 1,394.3
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · April 11, 2025
- Departed
- S52 · Winthrop, WA
- Equipment
- Electronic flight bag or handheld device
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
- 72
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Private, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- March 5, 2025
- Seat
- Single
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 1,300 total · 74 in this make and model · 1,275 as pilot in command · 28 in the last 90 days · 25 in the last 30 days · 6 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 210° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 91 °F, dew point 43 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.70 inHg
- Observed at
- KOMK, 27 nm away
- METAR
- KOMK 112353Z AUTO 21009KT 10SM CLR 33/06 A2970 RMK AO2 SLP048 T03330056 10339 20283 58011
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on August 21, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.2 MB 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.