ANC90LA078 · Champion AERONCA 7DC AERONCA 7D
Champion AERONCA 7DC AERONCA 7D · Accident while standing
From L-3A to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC90LA078
- 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
Champion AERONCA 7DC AERONCA 7D
- Aircraft type
- Champion 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
- N2759A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L-3ATo 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Pilot in command › Proper assistance, not attained
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Tie down, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT WHILE PREPARATING FOR FLT, HE WAS STARTING THE ENG BY HAND PROPPING. THE ENG FLOODED, SO HE OPENED THE THROTTLE, TURNED THE FUEL VALVES & MAGNETOS 'OFF' & PROPPED THE ENG 10 TIMES TO PUMP FUEL FROM THE CYLINDERS. HE THEN RETURNED TO THE COCKPIT, TURNED ON THE MAGNETOS & VERIFIED THE FUEL VALVES WERE OFF, BUT FORGOT TO CLOSE THE THROTTLE BEFORE RESUMING THE PROCEDURE. ALSO, HE DID NOT TIE-DOWN THE ACFT OR CHOCK ITS WHEELS. WHEN HE COMMENCED HAND PROPPING, THE ENG STARTED & WENT TO A HIGH POWER SETTING. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT HIT SVRL OBJECTS (INCLUDING A UTILITY POLE) & WENT INTO ABOUT 3 FT OF WATER IN A LAKE, BEFORE THE ENG STOPPED.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO PROPERLY TIE DOWN AND CHOCK THE AIRCRAFT AND/OR OBTAIN PROPER ASSISTANCE, AND HIS FAILURE TO PROPERLY SET THE THROTTLE, WHILE HAND PROPPING TO START THE ENGINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC90LA078
- Event ID
- 20001212X23053
- Case number
- ANC90LA078
- 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 1990-05-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d2b2e33e0d7b921b650e311019d09721af0fb2a3564534ac519b90819b86ab2a; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:04:54.407Z.