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ISSUE 19 | NOV 2014 |
35
In Echin –v- Southern Tablelands Gliding Club [2013]
NSWSC 516, the Plaintiff claimed damages for
personal injuries sustained in an accident on 16 July
2008 when a glider that he was flying collided with
power lines as he was attempting to land at the
airstrip used by the Club.
The Plaintiff had joined the Club in mid-2005 and
completed his first solo flight in December 2006. The
Plaintiff’s first solo flight was his 76th flight and the
flight in which his accident occurred was his 150th
flight. The Plaintiff had undertaken a number of
dual flights with an instructor in the period between
December 2006 and the date of the accident.
The Defendant operated from a parcel of rural land.
There were high tension electricity lines strung from
three towers located on or near the eastern boundary
of the Defendant’s land.
During the Plaintiff’s fourth flight of the day the duty
pilot instructed him to make a “hangar landing”. This
involved landing the glider at a point close to the
hangar to reduce the distance to tow the gilder back
to the hangar. The Plaintiff approached the landing
strip and when he thought he had overflown the
power lines he activated the dive brakes to increase
his descent rate. Within a second or two of deploying
the dive brakes, the glider collided with the power
lines and fell approximately thirty metres to the
ground.