CHI04LA037 · American Champion 7GCBC
American Champion 7GCBC · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM) to Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA037
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
American Champion 7GCBC
- Aircraft type
- American 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
- N297JB
- Operator
- William G. Boerner · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM), Menominee, MITo Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM)
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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
- Landing gear, tire › Deflated
- Object › Other
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane collided with the terrain following a loss of directional control while landing. The pilot reported that during his takeoff roll he felt a "slight bump" on the left side of the airplane which felt like he ran over something. He reported he disregarded the "bump" and continued the takeoff. Following a local flight he returned to the airport for a landing. He reported that upon landing "an object was hit by the left main tire, a bang was heard from what I assumed was an object hitting the left side of the fuselage." He reported that at the same time, the airplane pulled to the left. He applied "hard" right rudder and power with the intention of taking off. However, he reported, the airplane veered to the right with the right wing contacting the ground. The airplane skidded sideways for about 150 feet coming to rest off the departure end of the runway. During a post accident inspection punctures were found on the inside sidewall of the left tire. A small Phillips screwdriver was found near the point of takeoff.
Probable cause
The Phillips screwdriver impacting the left tire on takeoff roll, and the deflated tire which did not allow directional control to be maintained during the subsequent landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA037
- Event ID
- 20031202X01973
- Case number
- CHI04LA037
- 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, coordinates. 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: 486a30f35898736c0eb7cf7d859610f4b1525e0269488a95f39ecdc1c397881b; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:07:53.188Z.