DEN08LA127 · Schempp-Hirth Ventus A
Schempp-Hirth Ventus A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Tsa Gliderport (TA11) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN08LA127
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Schempp-Hirth Ventus A
- Aircraft type
- Schempp Hirth VENTUS
- Category
- Glider
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N47JD
- Operator
- Richard Johnson
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tsa Gliderport (TA11), TSA Gliderport, TXTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses to the accident said the glider appeared to be flying normally when it suddenly pitched up and down, then flew into the ground. This was substantiated by flight data from an onboard recorder. The pilot was fatally injured and portions of the glider's wings and empennage were seperated from the fuselage. The pilot was an 11 time national soaring champion with approximately 50 years experience flying gliders and airplanes. The pilot had very recent symptoms, recent test results, and autopsy findings consistent with serious coronary artery disease. He also had abnormal rhythms on ECG monitoring that would have likely increased his risk of sudden death. The pilot was in the process of scheduling a cardiac catheterization and possible angioplasty. He may have been impaired or incapacitated by pain, an abnormal heart rhythm, or sudden cardiac death. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with an abrupt physical inability to continue controlling the aircraft.
Probable cause
The pilot's inability to maintain aircraft control due to an incapacitating cardiac event. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's poor decision to fly with known serious medical issues.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN08LA127
- Event ID
- 20080729X01126
- Case number
- DEN08LA127
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4e773ea6179c171ed3cfbc451ac01722f2faec4f03c028d0ebb5ea3e67300c85; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:17:57.514Z.