Acidente mortal no WGC2010, Eslovaquia

[Emmanuel]

We are sad to have to announce that we had a fatal accident this afternoon. Alexander Martynov from Russian Federation, crashed in his LAK 19 sailplane approximately about an hour after the opening of the startline, about 23 km North East from Prievidza.

At least two other pilots witnessed the accident. According to them Alexander was circling in a
thermal at nearly 1000 meters QNH when he entered into a spin. He did not recover from this spin and crashed into the forest. Pilots sent the coordinates and one of them landed in Martin in order to help to identify the crash location.

At 13:58 we were alerted by the team captain of one of these pilots and we immediately activated the search and rescue system. We sent an airplane to the accident location to search for the sailplane and after a few minutes later it was joined by a Helicopter from the Search and Rescue system. Due to the density of the forest none of the aircrafts could find the glider.

Finally the police informed us that they found the wreck and the pilot was dead.

We decided to cancel the task in the standard class and inform the team captains about the decision.

The Accident and Incident Investigation Department of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication of the Slovak Republic is currently investigating the accident.
Posted July 8th, 2010

in: http://www.wgc2010.sk/index.php/en/news/3

Que descance em paz.
LOMBA, Emmanuel.

[Emmanuel]

The Chief Steward Roland Stuck had a very powerful speech about the safety.

I’m adding the speech in the news so you can read it and most importantly remember it too.

zulu

Dear competitors, dear team members,

I would like to express the condolences of the IGC officials present here to the family of Alexander, to the Russian team and to the organisers.

The President of the IGC and The Secretary General of the FAI also asked me to pass on their sincere condolences and sympathy to the Russian Team and to the Organizers.

As you know, the CD has decided to cancel the day in order to honour the memory of our friend

I would like you to make use of this rest day to think a little about the situation we have here at this competition

During the four first days of this competition we had one fatal accident, one mid air collision and yesterday morning we were very close to have another collision. We have also several gliders damaged during outlandings.

This is definitely the worst safety record we ever had in a WGC!

Is this only due to bad luck?

I do not think so

Every day we have pilots reporting dangerous flying, complaining about other pilots making silly manoeuvres before the start, entering into gaggles in a wild way, flying in clouds and so on, and so on.

Is this situation the fault the organisers?

I do not think so

The organisers pay due attention to safety. They have set up safe launching, start, finishing, and landing procedures, they made every day safety briefings, they made the right decision after the mid air collision.

So only YOU can improve the situation!

* - Remain concentrating during your flights!
* - Look out; do not look too much to your instruments or your PDA!
* - Respect the rules of the air; give the way if you have to do so!
* - Avoid leaching and flying in gaggles, make your own decisions!
* - Do not fly recklessly!
* - Do not fly aggressively!

No medal, no placing in a WGC is worth to put at stake your integrity or the life of other competitors!

Think about your family, about your children and about your friends!

Please make sure we will have no more accident at this championship!

Roland Stuck

Chief Steward

in: http://www.wgc2010.sk/index.php/en/news_show/110/no-rel

Cumprimentos a todos,
LOMBA, Emmanuel.