CEN11FA437 · American Champion Aircraft 7GCBC
American Champion Aircraft 7GCBC · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Bryant, SD (private airstrip) to Bryant, SD (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11FA437
- 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
- 3 · 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 Aircraft 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
- N711AT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bryant, SD (private airstrip)To Bryant, SD (private airstrip)
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2006)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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 › Action/decision
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 power lines while the pilot was intentionally flying at a low altitude. According to recovered GPS data, the majority of the accident flight was flown at less than 200 feet above ground level (agl). The final minute of recorded GPS data showed the airplane in a descending right turn to an easterly heading at a descent rate of 90 to 100 feet per minute and an average ground speed of 110 knots. The final data point was at an altitude of 50 feet agl as the airplane crossed over the road where the power lines were located. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. One of the propeller blades had indentations along its leading edge that had the same diameter and profile as the power lines found entangled with the airframe.
The airplane was equipped with tandem seating intended for two individuals. The pilot was found in the front seat, and two 11-year-old children occupied the rear seat. Although the rear seat could accommodate two smaller individuals, it was only equipped with one restraint, and it could not be determined if both children were sharing the restraint at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to attempt low-altitude flight and his failure to maintain adequate clearance from power lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11FA437
- Event ID
- 20110703X03457
- Case number
- CEN11FA437
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2011-07-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ce2b3e50af6afd55d9f230e9902421a3a76227a3a0622c2ea4378539e66f5899; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:30:45.500Z.