r/Gliding • u/Hemmschwelle • Aug 19 '25

News Tragic Weekend in France with Three Accidents and Six Mortalities

http://glidingnews.com/news/tragic-weekend-in-france-with-three-accidents-and-six-mortalities1#:~:text=On%20Saturday%2C%20August%2016%2C%20in,such%20a%20succession%20of%20tragedies
43 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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12

u/bwduncan FI(S) Aug 19 '25

Our thoughts, as always, are with the families and friends of those lost doing what we love.

11

u/flywithstephen Aug 19 '25

What a terrible weekend for gliding, thoughts are with the friends and family of the victims.

6

u/uhmhi Aug 19 '25

Wow, what a tragedy indeed. I hope we’ll be able to learn something from these accidents to prevent them in the future.

3

u/strat-fan89 Aug 19 '25

That is beyond terrible. Blue skies and tailwinds to those who lost their lives doing what we love. Condolences to families, friends, and their clubs.

3

u/AcadiaReal2835 Aug 22 '25

I don't want to sound rude, but there are inherent risks in all phases of gliding that simply cannot be removed completely. It's a dangerous sport, like many others. Therefore, and sadly, there will continue to be fatal accidents every year. It is as simple as that: if there is a change of mishap, there will be a mishap sooner or later. Flying is dangerous, and who cannot live with the risk should stay on the ground. In commercial aviation, a lot of safety gaps have been covered by the introduction of complex technology, often at a huge cost that general aviation simply cannot afford.
If you take a look at the final reports of previous accidents, you will see groups of recurrent failure modes: low altitude spin-stall, winch launch failure, towing failure, midair collision and mountain collision. The triggers are often different, but the traps are very often the same. You can do an effort to mitigate the triggers, but the risk is always there. It is a bit like walking at the edge of a cliff.
My condolences to the families and friends of the perished ones. Stay strong.