After a pilot error, a glider crashed on Saturday afternoon at the Maubray airfield, in the Hainaut city of Antoing. That is what the public prosecutor’s office of Tournai-Bergen says on Sunday. The inexperienced pilot died in the crash.
The accident happened at about 3:45 pm on the runway of the small airport of Maubray. The glider crashed during takeoff. The pilot had obtained his license in 2021.
The public prosecutor’s office of Tournai-Bergen sent a forensic doctor, an aeronautical expert and a representative of the public transport service to the scene of the accident. The wreckage of the glider was seized and stored in a hangar. The experts will return to the airfield next week to examine the remains of the aircraft.
Take off too fast
“The glider took off using a winch operated by the pilot. The glider was not pulled by another aircraft,” said Daniel Verheyen, deputy prosecutor.
“According to the initial findings of the aeronautical expert, the pilot took off too fast and went up too fast. While the slope at takeoff should be 45 degrees, here it was 80 degrees. That slope caused the aircraft to stall.”
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