At 3pm May 9th, the pilot was thermalling somewhere between 100-200ft above the top of Towers (AKA Contract Point). The pilot appears to initiate a right turn into lift when suddenly the glider begins go weightless and gets forced out of the right turn and rolled to the left. The left roll was strong enough for the glider to have flipped completely upside down, the pilot fell into the sail towards the back and left of the glider, at this point it appears that the left outboard leading edge section broke, evidence of stressed luff line clip and the manner in which leading edge broke indicate a strong negative loads. It is presumed that the broken wing would have induced a rapid spin until the pilot and glider struck the hillside with force causing fatal trauma.
A detailed report is being developed by the investigating team.
:.(.
Fatal Crash
- Steve90266
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Fatal Crash
Thank you for posting this, Frederick. It is indeed a sad thing and we all miss Markus very much. Your post here helps to give us some closure. It does not ease the pain and sadness, but at least helps us to understand.
Steve Murillo
Text of full report (email me for a copy with formatting)
errors on submission
in the meantime, email me for a copy of the full report
in the meantime, email me for a copy of the full report
- Ken Andrews
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Markus crash report
The full report can be downloaded here: http://www.shga.com/uploads/CrashAnalysis.pdf
- Steve90266
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Accident Report
As tragic and sad as this accident was, we can all take away something that will make us better pilots. I commend the accident review team for putting together such a comprehensive and well written report. I found Juan's comments particularly helpful. Many thanks to all of you.
Steve Murillo