ASK 21 lands hard after a low cable break and premature airbrakes

An instructor was seriously injured and a student hurt when their ASK 21 landed hard after a winch cable break at Orléans - Saint-Denis-de-l'Hôtel; the glider was lightly damaged. A few metres after lift-off the cable released for reasons never established. The instructor allowed a brief teaching pause, and the student — on the first flight of the season — reflexively opened the airbrakes before lowering the nose; the instructor took over too late. It was the missing immediate pitch-down, not the cable break itself, that drove the heavy landing.

1. Winch launch from RWY 05 (grass): On a winch-launch instruction takeoff from the grass runway, the glider with instructor and student aboard began rotation, the student's first flight of the season.
2. Cable release at low height: A few metres above the ground just after rotation, the winch cable released for an undetermined reason; post-accident inspection found the hook and cable intact.
3. Instructor's pedagogical second: The instructor chose to leave a brief pause for the student to react rather than take immediate control, a delay later judged too long given the very low height at cable release.
4. Student's low recent experience: BEA contributing factor: the student had ~20 h total and this was his first flight of the season (he had soloed the previous year).
5. Briefed airbrakes too early: The pre-takeoff briefing memorised by the student was 'attitude, airbrakes, land ahead', which put airbrake deployment before the pitch-down needed to regain speed.
6. Airbrakes before pitch-down: Reflexively following the briefing, the student deployed the airbrakes before pitching down to regain speed, reducing lift when the glider needed to convert energy into airspeed.
7. Instructor takeover too late: After the brief pause, the instructor took the controls, retracted the airbrakes and pitched the nose down — but the intervention came too late to fully recover the flight path.
8. Hard landing wings level: About ten seconds after the start of the launch, the glider hit the ground hard with wings level. Instructor seriously injured (spinal area); student injured; glider lightly damaged.