NYC91FA154 · Aeronca 7BCM
Aeronca 7BCM · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Millinocket Municipal Airport (MLT) to Millinocket Municipal Airport (MLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC91FA154
- 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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
Aeronca 7BCM
- Aircraft type
- Aeronca 7
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N2155E
- Operator
- Richard V. Bona · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Millinocket Municipal Airport (MLT), Millinocket, METo Millinocket Municipal Airport (MLT), Millinocket, ME
- 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 · turn to reverse direction
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Millinocket, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT INSTALLED AN INCORRECT OIL TEMPERATURE GAUGE. THE UNIT FIT INTO THE OIL SCREEN AND WAS SECURED BY PULLING THE CAPILLERY LINE TIGHT WITH TIE WRAPS. THE PILOT DEPARTED WITH HIS NEPHEW AND THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TRAILING SMOKE. LATER, IT WAS SEEN FLYING TOWARDS THE AIRPORT WITH NO SMOKE VISIBLE. THE AIRPLANE WAS THEN OBSERVED TO MAKE A SHARP LEFT TURN, ENTER A SPIN, THEN IMPACT IN A DITCH NEXT TO A ROAD. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF AN ENGINE FAILURE; HOWEVER, ONLY ONE PINT OF OIL WAS FOUND IN THE ENGINE. OIL WAS FOUND ON THE UNDER BELLY OF THE AIRPLANE. ALSO, AN OIL TRAIL WAS FOUND THAT BEGAN AT THE AIRCRAFT TIEDOWN AREA & EXTENDED TO THE RUNWAY, WHERE A PUDDLE WAS FOUND IN THE AREA BELIEVED TO BE USED BY THE PILOT FOR ENGINE RUNUP. WITNESSES INDICATED THE PILOT PERFORMED HIS OWN MAINTENANCE ON HIS AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHILE MANEUVERING FOR A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING ON A ROAD, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S IMPROPER REPLACEMENT OF AN OIL TEMPERATURE GAGE, AND A SUBSEQUENT OIL LEAK, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF OIL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC91FA154
- Event ID
- 20001212X17359
- Case number
- NYC91FA154
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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. 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: 459087003254e42cc64650f4f10c645326e06441369a4748f1ace01715ae0d19; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:45:42.807Z.