The Associated Press reported that an Air Force Academy cadet was “safe” after his glider “crash landed” in Colorado Springs:

Academy spokesman First Lt. Meredith Kirchoff said Monday the glider lost lift and came down four miles east of the airfield.

While the AP called it a “crash” landing, the local Colorado Springs Gazette said it was an “emergency landing.”  The cadet reportedly described it even less dramatically: 

The cadet described the landing as “just like landing on our airfield,” Kirchoff said.

The cadet was reportedly a member of the glider team.  Every glider pilot is taught to find places to land in case they find themselves in a position of lower energy than they expect —  ie, they can’t make it home.  So long as you can find a nice, smooth place to land, the result is an “off-field landing,” not a crash.

While a purely “normal” event would likely have been the cadet recovering to the USAFA airfield, it is not altogether unusual for gliders to land off field.