Accident databases

Can anyone post a link to a glider accident database. The BGA accident
database seems to be unavailable at the link I had bookmarked last year. I
am particularly interested in the DAeC or BGA databases.

Bill Daniels

Bill,

There is a link to the US NTSB glider query at
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/registry.htm

Wayne
HP-14 N990 "6F'
http://www.soaridaho.com/


"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
...
Can anyone post a link to a glider accident database. The BGA accident
database seems to be unavailable at the link I had bookmarked last year.
I
am particularly interested in the DAeC or BGA databases.

Bill Daniels

A./ There are several sources for accident reports by the BGA.

1./ Sailplane and Gliding includes brief reports, as far as I know this
includes all accidents reported to the BGA. Available in print only, not
on-line. You have to have the magazine, which is a good idea anyway.

2./ The BGA used to publish each year a printed document titled I think
"Accidents to Gliders", this includes brief details of all accidents
reported to the BGA for the year, similar to those in Sailplane and Gliding
with analyses, tabulations and general comment. As far as I know this is
still being published. I am not sure if it is available as a CD, and I do
not know whether a stock of back numbers is held. Nor do I know if it is
available to casual enquirers.

3./ The BGA web-site has a section with summaries of selected accidents.
That page cannot be obtained direct from the BGA web-site, you have to go
via the Department for Trade web-site. The link to that site is given on
the "Newsletters" page of the "Safety" section of the BGA site,
http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/safety/newsletters.htm . The link is
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm , go to "Links", click on
"UK - BGA Gliding Accidents Reports", it gives the user name and password.

I understand that this roundabout access is to prevent a general gliding
Google search finding it, but to make it accessible for glider pilots who
deliberately want it.

4./ For some reason the Essex & Suffolk Gliding Club has a section which
includes a database of accidents reported to the BGA. Go to
http://www.esgc.co.uk/home.asp?start=esgchome.htm , click on "Resources",
then click on "BGA Accidents". This covers 1987 to 1997, I do not know how
this came to be available or why it finished with 1997. I believe it is
complete for this period, but I am not certain.

Note that the classification of Category is pretty arbitrary, most accidents
could be classified under several categories (for instance a spin after a
launch failure, is it a spin accident or a launch failure accident?).

B./ Some gliding accidents and all power accidents at gliding sites are
investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the Department for
Trade (and not by the Civil Airworthiness Authority). Go to the link
already given http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm , and click on
"Bulletins".

Note that this web-site has recently been "improved" so all links before the
change no longer work, and reports before 2005 are now more difficult to
access, and may not be as complete as before. The dates are the date of
the report, not the date of the accident.

C./ Note that for the past year or more a BGA working party has been
reviewing past accidents going back many years, to re-categorise them and
review them again with a view to making recommendations for accident
avoidance.

I am not involved in any way with this, I understand that reports will be
produced in due course, I believe an article based on some of this research
relating to cable launching will be in Sailplane and Gliding fairly soon.

There has already been a series of club visits with a presentation based on
this work. It will perhaps cause no surprise that he major causes of major
accidents has been identified as:
mid-air collisions,
cable launch failures,
inadvertent spins.
Nothing new you may think, but there are now statistics to back this up.

D./ I think that the BGA reports and statistics do not include all
accidents to the UK Service clubs, e.g. the Royal Air Force Gliding and
Soaring Association, the British Army Gliding Association and the Royal
Naval Gliding and Soaring Association.

The BGA reports and statistics do not include any accidents to the Volunteer
Gliding Schools of the Air Training Corps, which is a part of the Royal Air
Force and quite separate from the RAFGSA.

I understand that the accident rates for the VGS and the service sporting
clubs RAFGSA etc. are better than for the civilian gliding clubs. There
are probably many reasons for this, but I think that one of them may be that
I think without exception all the VGS and service clubs are based on what
are or were full sized powered aircraft flying fields, whereas many civilian
gliding clubs are based on sites which are inherently more exacting.

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove "ic" to reply.


"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
...

Can anyone post a link to a glider accident database. The BGA accident
database seems to be unavailable at the link I had bookmarked last year.
I am particularly interested in the DAeC or BGA databases.

Bill Daniels

You will find the German accident dtabase at
http://www.bfu-web.de/

Bill Daniels schrieb:
Can anyone post a link to a glider accident database. The BGA accident
database seems to be unavailable at the link I had bookmarked last year. I
am particularly interested in the DAeC or BGA databases.

Bill Daniels