LAX86FA320 · Bellanca 7GCBC
Bellanca 7GCBC and Sussex Aviation Champion 7KCAB · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86FA320
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Bellanca 7GCBC
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 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
- N50443
- Operator
- San Val
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Catalina Airport (AVX), Avalon, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CA
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Champion 7KCAB
- 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
- N443E
- Operator
- Sussex Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Catalina Airport (AVX), Avalon, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CA
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
TWO PLTS, 1 FLYING BELLANCA 7GCBC, N50443, THE OTHER FLYING CHAMPION 7KCAB, N443E, TOOK THEIR GIRL FRIENDS ON A FLT WHICH INCLUDED FORMATION FLYING. THE CHAMPION PLT RPRTD HE FLEW FORMATION WITH THE BELLANCA WITH APRX A 20' SPREAD. RPRTDLY, ABOUT HALF WAY THRU THE FLT, WHILE THE CHAMPION WAS ON BELLANCA'S LEFT WING, THE BELLANCA PITCHED UP ABRUPTLY &WENT OUT OF FORMATION. AFTER REJOINING, THE CHAMPION PLT NOTICED THAT THE BELLANCA'S LEFT STABILIZER WAS BENT ON THE LEFT SIDE. LATER, SMALL ABRASIONS WERE FND ON THE CHAMPION'S RGT WING TIP WHICH MATCHED THE BELLANCA'S LEFT STABILIZER. THE PAX OF THE CHAMPION INDCD THAT AT TIMES DRG THE FLT, THE 2 ACFT CAME IN CLOSE PROXIMITY OF EACH OTHER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86FA320
- Event ID
- 20001213X34505
- Case number
- LAX86FA320
- 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 1986-08-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 911c82ef7e649387225e6a4eaf87ef13c35bdaf2bcfd35437dfd4a5ce7cfe635; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:09:43.685Z.