HPAC Safety Advisory – December 2018

Overview of 2018 Accidents and Incidents

HPAC 2018 data

Here are some figures with the HPAC Accident/Incident data available on November 30th, 2018. It should be noted that when the same incident is reported by more than one person it is counted as a single event, ie. as one report.

These figures represent only submitted reports (and in some cases, events for which sufficient first-hand information was available). You will possibly notice that data of 2015 and 2017 are different than what was communicated in May. This is explained by the submission in 2018 of additional reports for these years (3 for 2015 and 4 for 2017). It is still time to report a past incident It will allow us to improve the comprehensive HPAC Accident/Incident data.

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Type of injuries 2018

  • Death (drowning)
  • Back, 3 months recovery
  • Concussion
  • Fractures at the ankles and 3 fractures in the spine.
  • Broken fibula and shin bone
  • Broken arms
  • Broken ankle
  • Broken leg left calf
  • 2 broken ribs
  • Ankle sprain, twisted ankle
  • Several severely torn and ruptured tendons along with bruising
  • Pain with head, hip/wrist/knee
  • Moderate abdominal, neck and head pain
Overview of 2018 Accidents/incidents

Unhurt
PG
  • Twig stuck in trailing edge cascade lines upon launching, tugging on right trailing edge, bad control soaring close to the tree-tops, tree landing
PG
  • While thermaling spiral dive, pulled the reserve, tree landing
PG
  • Hit sink after doing forward launch, tree landing
PG
  • Wing start to spin, G force was increasing, pulled on the front mount reserve, at first deployment bag was not moving, tree landing
PG
  • Student at his first flight flew straight into the tree as per instructor guidance
PG
  • Rotor zone, 30-50% collapse, threw the reserve, tree landing 
PG
  • Had a collapse, lost altitude, tree landing
PG
  • Lack of trajectory focus, the pilot drifted behind 4-meter spruce trees, tree landing
HG
  • Mid- air collision within 2 gliders at ~350 feet
   
With injury
PG
  • After landing on an unexpected zone along the seashore, the wing was caught by the wind into the sea dragging the pilot and causing a death by drowning
PG
  • Strong thermal or turbulence, wing shooting back and forth, close to the ground, hit the ground
PG
  • Incomplete flare along with failure to get proper footing/landing position resulted in landing on shin
PG
  • Pilot flew in circle at two foot clearance over the launch and struck another pilot on launch in the back
PG
  • Encountering rotor conditions downwind of intended landing area, canopy deflation and ground impact
PG
  • Being guided from far away, student flew into a tree
PG
  • Sudden lull/turbulence while about 20ft above ground, tried to reach LZ, maneuvering at low speed initiated a spin, hit the ground
PG
  • Student towing off course and cross wind landing with tow pressure released
PG
  • Too low and fast approach, impacted the top of the ridge
PG
  • A tandem passenger harness carabiner was unhooked at the take off with the result of emergency hard landing back to the mountain
PG
  • 360 near the ridge, not enough space to complete the turn, high-speed vertical impact on the ridge
PG
  • Misaligned wing, lack of speed, missed takeoff
HG
  • During a low level flight, pulling the nose in for more speed too aggressively caused the tow line to slack and HG hit the ground level with both wheels and body swung ahead.
It is always possible to consult the statistics of other organizations such as the FFVL and the BHPA. Even though this information comes from elsewhere, it is just as useful for working on prevention.
https://federation.ffvl.fr/pages/d-clarations-d-accidents (see Accidents survenus entre le 1er janvier et le 31 octobre 2018)
https://federation.ffvl.fr/pages/fiches-p-dagogiques-et-documentation
https://www.bhpa.co.uk/documents/safety/informal_investigations/?filter

Since no progress is possible without member participation and reporting, we strongly encourage you to contact us with your ideas and concerns.
We hope to learn from all our experiences to promote safety for current and future members.

Thank you for your collaboration.

Suzanne Francoeur and Tyler Gillies,
Co-Chairs, HPAC Safety Committee


safety@hpac.ca