Un autogiro en despegue choca con un SZD-51 en final en el umbral

Un alumno en su primer vuelo en un SZD-51-1 Junior resultó gravemente herido y el planeador quedó destruido cuando un autogiro MTOsport en despegue subió a su trayectoria en final en Waldeck. Su rotor seccionó cerca de la mitad del ala derecha, y el planeador se invirtió y estrelló; el autogiro sufrió daños menores, su piloto ileso. Ninguno vio al otro a tiempo: el autogiro despegaba, fuera del área autorizada, de un punto oculto por los árboles, invisible para ambos, mientras el alumno estaba absorto en el tipo nuevo. Causa: contacto visual insuficiente entre ambos.

1. First solo on a new type: A student pilot, on his first flight on the single-seat SZD-51-1 Junior, was aerotowed to about 1000 m at Waldeck to get familiar with the type, then set up to land on runway 19.
2. Attention on the unfamiliar type: On final the student fixed on the runway-19 touchdown point and concentrated on flying a safe landing in the type new to him; the touchdown point stayed clear to him until the collision.
3. Autogyro launching from a screened spot: An MTOsport autogyro was departing for Kassel-Calden from an unapproved area before the runway-19 threshold; trees screened it, in the glider's blind angle and hindering its own lookout.
4. No mutual visual contact: Neither pilot saw the other in time; the student radioed his position but recalled no acknowledgement, and the autogyro pilot heard no warning. The ground controller could not intervene.
5. Rotor severs the glider's wing: As the autogyro climbed (~2 m, ~100 km/h) it came up under and in front of the glider; at 3-4 m the glider's right wing entered the rotor disc and about half the wing was severed.
6. Glider inverted; both aircraft damaged: The glider rolled 90-120 degrees and struck the ground inverted, destroyed, with the student seriously injured. The autogyro rolled ~100 m and landed lightly damaged, its pilot uninjured.