What happened
On April 6, 2022, at approximately 14:25 UTC, a Schempp-Hirth Ventus-2c glider crashed into a steep mountainside on the western side of the Schoberspitze, located in the municipality of Reißeck, Carinthia.
The flight began at 10:16 UTC at the Nötsch airfield (LOKN), where the pilot performed a winch launch. After successfully releasing from the tow plane, the pilot flew toward Sterzing, Italy, and later turned back toward the Reißeck group to descend to a target altitude for a return to Nötsch. During the flight, the pilot was in radio contact with another pilot, providing position and altitude updates.
While attempting to utilize rising air currents over a lake-like western slope, the pilot was performing circling maneuvers at a flight altitude of approximately 2,450 m MSL. During a right-hand turn at the minimum sink speed, the aircraft entered an aerodynamic stall/overstressed condition. This resulted in a loss of approximately 200 meters of altitude, leading to a frontal collision with the steep slope at an elevation of roughly 2,200 m MSL. The impact caused the destruction of the aircraft and resulted in one fatality.