LAX05CA024 · Champion 7GCAA
Champion 7GCAA · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while standing
From Petaluma Municipal Airport (O69) to Petaluma, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05CA024
- 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
Champion 7GCAA
- 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
- N9081L
- Operator
- Joel B. Kimmel · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Petaluma Municipal Airport (O69), Petaluma, CATo Petaluma, 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not followed
- Pilot in command › Starting procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was adjusting the propeller's position by hand when the engine started, and the pilotless airplane taxied across the ramp and into a parked airplane. After numerous unsuccessful start attempts using the airplane's electric starter, the pilot examined the engine and adjusted the propeller by hand. When he adjusted the propeller the engine started. He had left the brakes off, the magnetos on, and the throttle advanced. After the engine started, the pilot backed away, and the airplane moved forward. The pilot attempted to arrest the movement by grabbing on to the right wing strut, but this action was unsuccessful. The airplane continued forward eventually impacting the nose onto the right front side of a parked airplane. The pilot's operating manual states in the before starting checklist to set the brakes, and in the starting checklist to crack the throttle open 1/2 to 1 inch. The shutdown checklist states the mixture should be idle - cut off and the magnetos off.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to follow the published prestart, start, and shutdown procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05CA024
- Event ID
- 20041203X01912
- Case number
- LAX05CA024
- 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: cadbcf3cae11a8e77e4050f1970f5d93517fc6ef07e8ddb3bcee27ea3eadef56; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:34:14.575Z.