DEN86LA152 · Aeronca 7AC
Aeronca 7AC · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN86LA152
- 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
- N84693
- Operator
- James Forrette, SR
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Door, inspection › Open
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FRONT SEAT PLT, ON HIS FIRST FLT IN THE ACFT, WAS FLYING THE ACFT. AFTER TAKEOFF THE ACFT ENTERED A NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE BECAUSE THE ELEVATOR TRIM WAS IMPROPERLY SET. THE NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE WAS CORRECTED BUT THE RIGHT DOOR ON THE ENGINE COWLING CAME OPEN DURING THE MANEUVER. THE PLT IN THE REAR COCKPIT TOOK CONTROL OF THE ACFT, REDUCED POWER AND ENTERED A DOWNWIND FOR A CROSS RWY. THE REAR SEAT PLT REPORTED TROUBLE SEEING THE INSTRUMENT PANEL BECAUSE HIS VIEW WAS OBSTRUCTED BY THE FRONT SEAT OCCUPANT. THE PLT FELT THE ACFT WAS SLOW AS IT APPROACHED THE RWY AND HE ADDED PWR; HOWEVER, THE ACFT STALLED AT ABOUT 30 FT AGL, TOO LOW TO RECOVER. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE RT REAR FASTENER WAS WORN AND BOTH PLTS WERE AWARE OF THE CONDITION PRIOR TO TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN86LA152
- Event ID
- 20001213X33830
- Case number
- DEN86LA152
- 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 1986-06-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 923178226c56d9ad2fc1f82cc1dcd806534536b94fa81748e38f8cba27d44ade; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:23:39.650Z.