NYC87LA194 · Champion 7GCB
Champion 7GCB · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Portland, ME to WEST DOVER, VT
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC87LA194
- 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 7GCB
- 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
- N5185X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland, METo WEST DOVER, VT
- 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 · climb to 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
- Fluid, fuel › Incorrect
- Fuel system, carburetor › Improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Sullivan, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE FLOAT EQUIPPED CITABRIA 7GCBC EXPERIENCED A POWER LOSS WHEN HE ADDED POWER AND RAISED HIS NOSE FOR A CRUISE CLIMB FROM 3500 FT. HE SET UP FOR A FORCED LANDING IN A POND. AS HE NEARED TOUCHDOWN, THE ENGINE REGAINED POWER AND RESPONDED TO THE THROTTLE. HE OVERFLEW THE POND AT A LOW ALTITUDE. AS HE NEARED THE END OF THE POND HE RAISED THE NOSE TO CLEAR THE TREES AND THE ENGINE AGAIN LOST POWER. HE HAD A SWAMPY AREA AHEAD. HOWEVER, HE WAS TOO FAST TO MAKE A NORMAL LANDING SO HE PLANTED THE AIRCRAFT DOWN ON THE WATER. THE AIRCRAFT WAS FUELED WITH AUTOMOBILE GASOLINE. IT HAD NOT BEEN MODIFIED IN ACCORDANCE WITH AN APPROVED STC FOR AUTOMOBILE GASOLINE. THE FLOAT IN THE CARBURETOR WAS THE WRONG TYPE FOR AUTOMOBILE GASOLINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC87LA194
- Event ID
- 20001213X31328
- Case number
- NYC87LA194
- 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: fd3927b2177eb6e9b8f0bf8e4d60a32a905bd65f826609b54205899fb837e9ed; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:25:43.053Z.