Incident de lancement du Mosquito B à l'aérodrome de Gruyère entraînant des dommages graves
Le 2 août 1985, un Glasflügel Mosquito B a subi un incident de lancement à l'aérodrome de Gruyère en Suisse. Lors du lancement par treuil, le planeur est entré dans une montée abrupte peu après le décollage. L'opérateur du treuil a libéré le câble, mais le pilote n'a pas pu éviter un atterrissage brutal. Le pilote a subi des blessures graves et l'appareil a été détruit. L'enquête a conclu que l'accident était probablement dû au fait que le dossier n'était pas correctement sécurisé, ce qui a causé la perte de contrôle par le pilote.
- Winch launch takeoff: During a winch launch from runway 36 at Gruyères, the glider began its initial ground roll and liftoff under full power from the club-built winch.
- Seat back shifts: Shortly after liftoff, the insufficiently locked seat back likely collapsed rearwards, causing the pilot to pitch backward in the cockpit and inadvertently pull on the control stick.
- Strong acceleration: The winch provided a strong initial acceleration that was unfamiliar to the pilot at this particular airfield, contributing to his being destabilized during the launch.
- First winch at field: Although experienced in winch launches elsewhere, this was the pilot’s first winch launch at Gruyères, where local launch characteristics and acceleration were new to him.
- Excessive nose-up: About 10–15 seconds after takeoff the glider adopted an excessively steep nose-up attitude, then also rolled right, prompting the winch operator to release the cable.
- Pilot regains attitude: After cable release the pilot managed to level the glider from its nose-down trajectory but was unable to sufficiently reduce the high rate of descent.
- Crash - serious injury: The glider impacted the ground nearly horizontally with a high vertical speed, seriously injuring the pilot and destroying the aircraft.