SEA91LA254 · Bellanca 7GCBC
Bellanca 7GCBC · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport (GCC) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA91LA254
- 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
- 0 · 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
Bellanca 7GCBC
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 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
- N5505H
- Operator
- Walter A. Kupferschmidt · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport (GCC), Gillette, WYTo 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Clearance › Inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper assistance, not obtained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER LANDING ON A PAVED ROAD, THE PILOT SECURED THE AID OF A RANCHER TO ASSIST IN TAKEOFF. HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE CONDITIONS EXISTED AT THE TIME WHICH REDUCED THE AIRCRAFT'S TAKEOFF PERFORMANCE. THE PILOT DID NOT ESTABLISH CLEAR PROCEDURES WITH THE RANCHER TO INSURE THAT THE ROADWAY WOULD BE CLEAR FOR A SUFFICIENT LENGTH FOR TAKEOFF. NOR DID HE ESTABLISH CLEAR COMMUNICATION PROCEDURES TO BE USED PRIOR TO THE TAKEOFF EVOLUTION. THE PILOT OBSERVED A HAND SIGNAL FROM THE RANCHER WHICH HE PERCEIVED TO BE A GO AHEAD FOR HIS DEPARTURE AND DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL HE ENCOUNTERED A VEHICLE DRAWN TRAILER ON THE ROAD IN HIS GROUND PATH. HE ATTEMPTED TO CLIMB AND TURN AWAY FROM THE VEHICLE AND THEN MANEUVER AWAY FROM TERRAIN, HOWEVER, ADEQUATE CLEARANCE WAS NOT AVAILABLE TO INSURE THE AIRCRAFT WOULD CLEAR THE TRAILER. THE AIRCRAFT'S LEFT WINGTIP IMPACTED THE TRAILER AND A LOSS OF CONTROL AND GROUND COLLISION FOLLOWED.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE CLEARANCE WITH THE VEHICLE AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN PROPER ASSISTANCE FOR THE TAKEOFF. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE 1) THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING, 2) THE VEHICLE, AND 3) HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA91LA254
- Event ID
- 20001212X18214
- Case number
- SEA91LA254
- 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 1991-09-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4850d593d2dbf6569f2cf1e07980b2c00bc66f41dd6c4fecd892e980e89ae0bc; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:39:03.182Z.