Collision du Diamant 18 avec un câble près de Bludenz entraîne un décès

Le 8 juillet 1968, un Glasflügel Diamant 18 est entré en collision avec un câble dans la forêt de Rungeliner près de Bludenz, Autriche. Le pilote effectuait un vol de distance de 600 km lorsque l'incident s'est produit. En cherchant une ascendance, le planeur a heurté un câble d'une installation agricole locale, entraînant un crash dans une zone boisée. Le pilote a subi de graves blessures et a succombé avant d'atteindre une assistance médicale. L'appareil a été considérablement endommagé lors du crash.

1. Cross-country cruise: The experienced pilot departed Altenrhein at 08:00 on a 600 km cross-country flight in a Diamant 18 glider and cruised toward the Bludenz area searching for usable lift.
2. Weak early thermals: Around 10:00 near Bludenz the thermals were still weak and only beginning to develop, forcing the pilot to fly low and close to the sun-heated Rungeliner forest slopes while searching for lift.
3. Unmarked cable hazard: An agricultural Rungelin–Furkla cableway with a 5.5 mm support cable, charted but unmarked and visually hard to detect from the air above the forested slope, crossed the area where the pilot was thermaling.
4. Collision with cable: While turning left in about 40–45° bank near the slope to exploit weak lift, the glider unexpectedly struck the thin support cable of the agricultural cableway at roughly 80–90 km/h.
5. Loss of control descent: After the cable strike, the glider’s attitude became unstable, with the nose pitching up briefly then twice dropping through before the aircraft rolled toward the mountain and entered a near-vertical descent into the forest.
6. Crash - fatal: The glider impacted the steep, wooded slope almost vertically, severely destroying the forward fuselage and fatally injuring the pilot despite wearing an unused parachute.