CEN13LA377 · Dankelman Peter G RV-7A
Dankelman Peter G RV-7A · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Seguin Airport (E70) to Zuehl Airport (1TE4)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA377
- 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
- 1 · 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
Dankelman Peter G RV-7A
- Aircraft type
- Dankelman Peter RV-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
- N445RV
- Operator
- Dankelman Peter G
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seguin Airport (E70), Seguin, TXTo Zuehl Airport (1TE4), Marion, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2008)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Physical
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported observing the pilot make two unsuccessful landing attempts in the dark at the unlit airport. The airplane's landing lights were not on. During a third landing attempt, the airplane collided with power lines and trees. The pilot had a history of heart disease and had been given a special issuance third-class airman medical certificate; however, it was not valid at the time of the accident. A toxicology report indicated the use of Losartan, a prescription medication used to treat high blood pressure. Although the autopsy did not identify evidence of a recent heart attack, the autopsy did identify evidence indicating that the pilot was at risk for a sudden cardiac event that could result in incapacitation and concluded that the pilot died as a result of hypertensive and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. It is likely that the pilot's sudden incapacitation and death during the flight resulted in the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s sudden incapacitation and natural death as a result of cardiovascular disease.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA377
- Event ID
- 20130628X01127
- Case number
- CEN13LA377
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2013-06-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c42fc6a22f92a952ef2a283da03cf040ca66277ad169de3504667e94cfab1056; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:59:51.343Z.