ERA09LA348 · Aeronca 7AC
Aeronca 7AC · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Fairmont Municipal Airport Frankman Field (4G7) to Fairmont Municipal Airport Frankman Field (4G7)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA348
- 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
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
- N7544E
- Operator
- Cowgill Richard D
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fairmont Municipal Airport Frankman Field (4G7), Fairmont, WVTo Fairmont Municipal Airport Frankman Field (4G7), Fairmont, WV
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 stated that during the takeoff roll, the airplane "instantly" rolled on a 45-degree angle to the left and crashed into a ravine on the side of the runway. Examination of the airframe, flight control system, and engine components revealed no evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunction. During further examination, it was noted that the elevator trim was in the full nose-up position. When asked about this finding, the pilot stated that he had forgotten the trim in this position before and almost lost control during takeoff, but was able to continue flying the airplane. The airplane's "BEFORE TAKEOFF" checklist instructs the pilot to set pitch trim.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during takeoff. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate use of the checklist.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA348
- Event ID
- 20090615X82221
- Case number
- ERA09LA348
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: ca8e6274c6b93aa478ce8cc8975a4c9b9676133185b88c752ce4b0b3f1883872; retrieved 2026-09-15T11:27:13.712Z.