I think the way the rearward motion is this.
In the second photo the wing contacts the ground.
There is a lot of spring in those long wings.
He was coming in nearly vertically and so the wing is acting like a spring and pushed him back.
G.J

The flight path of the glider reminds me of the b52 accident at fairchild. Stalled in a steep turn.

I want to keep this link and ask aviators, can an airplane stall, low to the ground and in a steep turn, and when it hits the ground be sliding backwards. When they tell me I'm crazy I'll show them this.

Several people here and at other places have suggested that when it stalled it was going slow enough and there was enough wind that the wind pushed it that way. Has anybody seen what the wind was at the time of the accident. This is doubtful to me.

This is the first time I've heard of an accident were the aircraft came to rest behind the initial point of impact. Aside from bouncing off of something.

Perhaps when something stalls that slow, there is a swinging moment when the nose drops. And if it was higher the nose would've gone past center. So instead of going past center, it hit the ground and slid backwards.

Soup Campbell wrote:I think the way the rearward motion is this.
In the second photo the wing contacts the ground.
There is a lot of spring in those long wings.
He was coming in nearly vertically and so the wing is acting like a spring and pushed him back.
G.J

If there was forward movement wouldn't that have caused it to pivot? If it was traveling verticaly the wing contact would have caused roll.

Cheers

Paul