The glider pilot is way too upset to say anything here. It was his
second solo flight and he feels very bad, but it doesnot appear to
have been caused by anything he did. The line got very slack so he
released and returned to the runway. It seems that the tug had
serious problems forcing him to land, not crash, in a field, which
then caught fire . There are accounts from the ground that the plane
sputtered and another of possible smoke or flames. In almost every
plane crash you can find some one on the ground that heard the plane
sputter though, even if it's a jet, but that's what we know at this
point. I am obviously in favor of disseminating what information we
have and I'm trying hard to keep from saying anything that would upset
anyone involved. I think it is very important to talk about
accidents. Way too many clubs and operations work to hide the
accidents that happen at their sites, and I really disagree with that
kind of attitude. We need to learn from our accidents and talk about
them openly and be very careful to not make it difficult to talk about
this by being nasty about it. If you don’t want to be involved,
don’t read it.


Gary Boggs
1309 16th St.
Hood River, Oregon.
97031
www.nwskysports.com
503-708-8869