Investigators examine the wreckage of the Merlin glider of the Canberra Gliding Club, which crashed on 27 December 1959 when its wing detached soon after casting off from an aero tow. Pilot killed. The wing strut to fuselage attachments were inadequate, as the result of a rebuilt after an earlier accident. The unregistered glider first flew in 1943 and had made several thousand flights before the fatal final rebuild. Gliding was unregulated in 1943 with no registration or type approvals required. When gliding became regulated in the 1950s, existing gliders did not have to comply.