UK Fatal again ?
Mike Cohler
which occured over Clwyd in Wales on Saturday ? I saw a brief
30 second clip on the TV news with a picture of a pile of tangled
plastic with an RAF insignia, and the commentary saying that there
had been a collision between two gliders resulting in a fatality.
WHich club(s) were the gliders from ? HOw many died ? Did any
survive ?
This is becoming a very bad year, and these accidents certainly
do not help in the public perception of the sport, of a safe way
to spend weekends.
Anyway, I would like to know if the accident was due to congested
thermals, or some other reason. I hope it was not another AEI
flight, with a member of the public getting killed.
Mike
A M
>
>Does anyone know anything of the circumstances of the fatal accident
>which occured over Clwyd in Wales on Saturday ? I saw a brief
>30 second clip on the TV news with a picture of a pile of tangled
>plastic with an RAF insignia, and the commentary saying that there
>had been a collision between two gliders resulting in a fatality.
>
>WHich club(s) were the gliders from ? HOw many died ? Did any
>survive ?
>
As I understand two were killed and two injured. The gliders were from
RAF Sealand. No other infomation. This is from a local news paper.
Tony
NG. Piggot
TWO DIE AS GLIDERS COLLIDE FOLLOWING SAME THERMAL
by Harvey Elliott, Air Correspondant.
A 14-year-old girl was killed when the glider in which she was flying
plunged nose-first into a filed in North Wales after a mid-air collision
with another sail-plane.
Leah Alderson, an RAF Air Training Corps cadet, and her instructor
Frederick Seeckis, 54, died after their twin-seater glider was badly
damaged when it hit another glider in which a ffteen-year-old boy was
also being taught. Both gliders were thought to have been following the
same thermal.
The aricraft had taken off from the Air Training Corps Glider School at RAF
Sealand near Chester. As they soared upwards on the hot rising air they
collided a few hundred feet above the airfield, causing the twin-seat Grob being
flown by Mr Seeckts to go into a "corkscrew" spin and plunge into the ground.
The other glider was landed safely by instructor Ann Hale, from Wrexham, despite severe damage to the wings and cockpit. She was taken to hospital in Chester with back injuries. Her pupil, James Gough from Manchester, was unhurt but
suffered shock.
The RAF began an investigation into what went wrong in what has been
regarded as one of the safest sports in the country. Although dozens of
gliders often take off within a few seconds of one another and chase the
same thermal, a combination of low speeds, extreme manoeuverability, all-
round visibility and strict guidelines about following the same direction
of turn, means that there are few mid-air accidents.
Leah, from Skelmersdale, Liverpool, had been on a gliding course at RAF
Sealand and had been taken up by Mr Seeckts, a civilian instructor from
Mold, Clwyd.
The accident, on Saturday evening, was witnessed by many people on the
ground, who told of a loud bang as the two aircraft collided and one came
crashing down.
Inspector Neil Kyte of North Wales Police said: "As far as we can make out,
two gliders were following the same thermal. One managed to get back to
Sealand and make a forced landing with a damaged left wing and cockpit
canopy. The other came spiralling down, nose-first and disintegrated as it
hit the ground. Both people were killed instantly."
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Neil Piggot,
School of Chemistry,
University of Bristol.
John McCullagh
teenage cadet and the instructor. The other glider landed
but the instructor sustained back injuries.