LAX91LA340 · Champion 7GCBC
Champion 7GCBC · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From L49 · Lake Elsinore, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA340
- 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
Champion 7GCBC
- Aircraft type
- Champion 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
- N1693G
- Operator
- Halbeisen, John F · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L49 · Lake Elsinore, CATo 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lake Elsinore, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED THE PRIVATELY OWNED AIRPORT ON AN ACROBATIC FLIGHT OVER A LAKE. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE ENTER INTO A SERIES OF LOOPS AND ROLLS AT LESS THAN 300 FT ABOVE THE GROUND. WHEN IT ENTERED A HAMMERHEAD STALL MANEUVER THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO SPIN IN A NEAR VERTICAL NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE FROM WHICH IT DID NOT RECOVER. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE LAKE IN THIS ATTITUDE KILLING THE PRIVATE PILOT AND PASSENGER. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DISCLOSED THE RIGHT ELEVATOR TUBE FAILED AT ITS BUTT-WELD JOINT WHILE IN FLIGHT.
Probable cause
THE IN-FLIGHT FAILURE OF THE RIGHT ELEVATOR. FACTORS RELATING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S DECISION TO PERFORM AEROBATICS AT AN IMPROPER ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA340
- Event ID
- 20001212X17886
- Case number
- LAX91LA340
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-08-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 06a107b5ef7dabaf8b70e109d1c2e4d9483b04af43835fdba058e9295dd6ebfa; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:39:14.030Z.