SCHEMPP-HIRTH NIMBUS 4DM, MINDEN, NEV., JULY 13, 1999– The National Transportation Safety Board has issued its final report on the crash of a Schempp-Hirth Nimbus 4DM glider that killed former FAA Administrator Donald Engen and friend Bill Ivans, who owned the powered glider. It is believed that Engen was sitting in the passenger seat behind Ivans, who would have been flying the aircraft. At the time of his death, Engen was director of the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. He had previously been a member of the NTSB and the executive director of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation.
The glider broke up in flight during the recovery phase after a departure from controlled flight while maneuvering in thermal lift conditions. Other glider pilots in the area who saw the accident told investigators that Ivans’ glider was in a tight turn, as if climbing in a thermal, when it entered a spiral or spin. With a 45-deg nose-down attitude, speed built quickly as the glider completed two full rotations. The rotation then stopped, the aircraft stabilized on a northeasterly heading, and the nose pitched further down to a near-vertical attitude.
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