CEN13LA406 · American Champion Aircraft 7GCBC
Kcsi Aerial Patrol American Champion Aircraft 7GCBC · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport (LBX) to Angelina County Airport (LFK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA406
- 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 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
- N255SF
- Operator
- Kcsi Aerial Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport (LBX), ANGLETON/LAKE JACKSON, TXTo Angelina County Airport (LFK), Lufkin, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2000)
- 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
- Loss of engine power (total)
- 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 power plant
- 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 was flying a pipeline patrol flight about 500 feet above ground level. About 6 miles south of the destination, the engine abruptly lost power. The pilot observed that both fuel tanks contained a usable level of fuel. Additionally, he saw no obvious issues with the mixture setting, carburetor heat, magnetos, throttle position, and fuel shutoff valve. The pilot landed the airplane in a field with high vegetation, which resulted in strut damage.
The pilot did not report any fuel or oil leaks. During a postaccident examination, the engine was intermittently operational. The engine would produce power when the carburetor was "tapped" after the engine stopped. A carburetor examination revealed that the accelerator pump was operational and that the fuel screens were clear of debris. However, the forked needle valve's movement within its seat was restricted. The valve clip forks were observed resting on the valve seat when the carburetor's throttle body was inverted. The carburetor maintenance manual specified that a minimum clearance must exist between the forked valve clip and the valve seat. It is likely that the restricted movement of the carburetor's forked needle valve resulted from the mechanic's misadjustment of the valve clip forks, which subsequently caused the engine to lose power due to fuel starvation.
Probable cause
The restricted movement of the carburetor’s forked needle valve within its seat due to the mechanic’s misadjustment of the valve clip forks, which resulted in fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA406
- Event ID
- 20130711X61156
- Case number
- CEN13LA406
- 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: f72ea9a3a4dc44e8e03c758fa547fe95fe691fba1bba07bac03c269008effbd3; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:11:27.677Z.