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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Accidents Happen...

Glider crash injures teen girl - Air cadet taken to hospital after plane goes down during takeoff from Debert airfield

I assume it is the towplane that was at fault, rather than the female glider pilot involved in this accdent:

A teenage air cadet was taken to hospital with neck pain after her glider crash-landed at the Debert airfield early Sunday afternoon.

The girl, 13, and a woman, who was the pilot, were in the glider at the time.

The small aircraft was being towed and taking off when a decision was made to abort, said RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Doucet of Colchester County RCMP.

"It came down fairly hard," Doucet said.

As of early Sunday evening, the cause of the crash was not known, he said

The glider was involved in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets glider training program, an airport official said.


No air cadet officials could be reached to confirm the information about the training program.

RCMP officers and paramedics were called to the airfield near Truro at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The girl was taken to hospital, said Krista Beck, an Emergency Health Services spokeswoman.

The airport has three paved runways. Colchester Regional Development Authority operates it.

According to a regional gliding school website, the air cadet gliding program began in Alberta in 1965 to introduce potential pilots to flying. Sites were later added across Canada.

The Debert airfield became the Atlantic regional training school in 1985.

Its goal is to provide about 50 cadets with 10 hours flying experience each summer to help them qualify for a Transport Canada glider pilot licence.

Those who continue with their training can go on to earn a private pilot licence.

An investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada was aware of the crash Sunday but confirmed the board is not looking into what happened.

"The military have their own investigators. We don’t get involved," Neil Pinsent said.

Read the original here:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1181546.html

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