ASW 19 B strikes embankment trees turning final on an outlanding

A pilot was killed and the ASW 19 B destroyed in an outlanding beside the motorway at Flachau. Late on a cross-country from Sankt Johann the lift failed and the pilot radioed that he was very low and needed a climb. He circled in sink beside the motorway, then turned back for a field between a sports ground and the embankment. Witnesses called the glider too fast for a landing and quite low; it rose in the right turn, crossed the wooded embankment, and a wing hit the trees. No technical failure was found; the unstable air could bring brief gusty downdraughts.

1. Cross-country from Sankt Johann: The ASW 19 B was towed off Sankt Johann in Tirol and released at about 1,300 m MSL for a flight along the Enns valley, in company with a club motorglider.
2. Lift fails across the return leg: The motorglider had to run its engine repeatedly to get home and passed on that there was no lift. The glider pilot turned back for the airfield from the Grimming, 118 km out.
3. Presses home and gets very low: Near Radstadt the pilot radioed that he was already very low and needed a climb. He then circled in sink beside the motorway at Flachau without gaining height.
4. Field beside a raised motorway: He turned back for a field west of the motorway, between a sports ground and an embankment carried on a dam, and set up a right turn onto it.
5. Too fast and low onto final: Witnesses described the glider as too fast for a landing and quite low. In the right turn it rose again and crossed the wooded embankment.
6. Wing hits the embankment trees: The left wing struck trees on the embankment. The fuselage hit an asphalt road nose first at about 45 degrees of pitch; the pilot was killed and the glider destroyed.