BFO88LA055 · Aeronca 7AC
Aeronca 7AC · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From W16 · Winchester, VA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO88LA055
- 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
Aeronca 7AC
- 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
- N1841E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W16 · Winchester, VATo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, not used
- Weather condition › Carburetor icing conditions
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT SAID HE WAS CRUISING AT 3000 FT WHEN HE REDUCED PWR TO START A DESCENT TO 2000 FT. AFTER PWR WAS REDUCED FROM 2350 TO 1800 RPM, A TOTAL PWR LOSS OCCURRED. ATTEMPTS TO RESTART THE ENGINE WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THE PLT SAID HE DID NOT USE CARB HEAT, ALTHOUGH, HE SAID, LATER THAT HE SUSPECTED CARB ICE. THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING INTO AN OPEN FIELD. THE PLT SAID BECAUSE OF THE SOFT TERRAIN AND HIGH GRASS, THE ACFT NOSED OVER DURING THE LANDING ROLL. THE TEMP/ DEW PT WAS 82/54 DEGS. POST ACCIDENT ENGINE TEST DISCLOSED IT OPERATED SATISFACTORY AT VARIOUS POWER SETTINGS. WEATHER CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE TO THE FORMATION OF CARBURETOR ICE.
Probable cause
LOSS OF POWER BECAUSE OF CARBURETOR ICE WHICH OBSTRUCTED AIRFLOW TO THE ENGINE. THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER ON LANDING BECAUSE OF SOFT TERRAIN AND HIGH GRASS. THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO USE CARBURETOR HEAT IS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO88LA055
- Event ID
- 20001213X25879
- Case number
- BFO88LA055
- 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: 7c9154a105c05af32083cae5cbfd93ebb90ae646b73707ae752bd0fe94c99de3; retrieved 2026-09-23T09:58:28.671Z.