MIA89LA208 · Aeronca 7AC
Aeronca 7AC · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 6X6 · Homestead, FL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89LA208
- 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
- N60FU
- Operator
- Neubauer, Richard L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 6X6 · Homestead, FLTo 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)
- 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
- Fuel starvation; Wire, transmission
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, cap › Improper
- Fuel system, vent › Blocked(total)
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, improper
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS THE PLT WAS RETURNING TO LAND AT HIS AIRSTRIP, THE ENG LOST POWER FROM FUEL STARVATION. SUBSEQUENTLY, DURING AN APCH FOR A FORCED LNDG, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A TELEPHONE LINE, THEN CRASHED TO THE GROUND. THE PLT STATED THAT BEFORE THE FLT, HE HAD REPLACED THE FUEL CAP SEAL. WHEN THE FUEL CAP WAS REMOVED AFTER THE ACDNT TO CHECK FOR FUEL, A RUSH OF AIR WAS NOTED (INDICATING THAT DRG FLT, THE FUEL TANK HAD NOT VENTED THRU THE CAP, AS REQUIRED).
Probable cause
IMPROPER REPAIR OF THE FUEL CAP (SEAL) BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN A BLOCKED FUEL SYSTEM (CAP) VENT AND SUBSEQUENT FUEL STARVATION, AND HIS FAILURE TO SEE-AND-AVOID THE TELEPHONE LINE. THE TELEPHONE (TRANSMISSION) LINE WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89LA208
- Event ID
- 20001213X28912
- Case number
- MIA89LA208
- 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: 255812c7c020547c36d9042115435a1d5e2e110a1282d449cdd576b43bc84868; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:52:10.975Z.