Felix Rühle <> writes:

Last Thursday (11th October) we had a fatal winching accident. Wolfgang Meschik who had worked for A-I-R in the past and was very much a friend of the company and all its staff. Wolfgang flew with us most of the time and he will be sadly missed.

During the last few weeks Wolfgang had suffered with inflammation of his left shoulder which had restricted its movement. A few days before the accident he had had problems bringing his arm down to the speed bar after a foot launched winch take off.

On his last flight there were several witnesses close to take off as well as those at the winch. They reported that he appeared to have his arm trapped 'outside' the control frame. He climbed up on tow at first and then appeared to be struggling to release his left arm from the left down tube. The glider drifted slightly to the left and then when he was at about fifty meters or higher it moved slightly to the right. He may have taken his right hand off the base tube in order to pull his left hand free.

"The glider suddenly turned left and flew into the ground at high speed."

Other facts:

The crashed glider, a VQ, had earlier been flown by Wolfgang and other pilots without incident.
The take off was foot launched, a cart was not used, so that Wolfgang's hands were not originally on the base bar.
Wolfgang was flying with new gloves, which may have had a different stickiness and feel to them.
The tow line was cut just before impact.
Wolfgang did not release.

After the investigation we will inform you if we find anything else that may have contributed to the accident and any advice which might reduce the risk of it happening again.

Tim, Wolfgang's son, works for us at A-I-R. So its very hard for us all at the moment but especially for Tim and his family. Our thoughts are with them.

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