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WPR14FA283 · American Champion Aircraft 7GCBC

7 Jul 2014 · Landmark, ID, United States

American Champion Aircraft 7GCBC and Cessna R172K · Accident: midair collision en route

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Event

NTSB case
WPR14FA283
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

Aircraft 1 · 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
N162CG
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From McCall Municipal Airport (KMYL), McCall, IDTo Sulphur Creek Ranch Airport (ID74), Cascade, ID
Aircraft age
About 6 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
En route · cruise
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
Midair collision
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Aircraft 2 · Cessna R172K

Aircraft type
Cessna 172
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
N7390K
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Flying A Ranch Airport (ID59), Lake Fork, ID, IDTo Sulphur Creek Ranch Airport (ID74), Cascade, ID
Aircraft age
About 38 years (built 1976)
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
En route · cruise
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
Midair collision
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 › Psychological

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The American Champion pilot and the Cessna pilot had prearranged to fly into the destination airport and meet the morning of the accident. After takeoff, the American Champion pilot obtained visual contact with the Cessna as it departed a nearby private airstrip. The Cessna was below and behind the American Champion at its 5-o'clock position. Both pilots were in radio communications with each other, and the Cessna pilot stated that he had the American Champion in sight. The Cessna pilot stated that his groundspeed was 129 knots, and the American Champion pilot stated that hers was 101 knots. Over the radio, the Cessna pilot stated that he had passed the American Champion. The American Champion pilot was 11 miles northwest of the destination airport and had lost visual contact with the Cessna. About that time, the American Champion pilot saw the Cessna appear under her airplane's left wing, overtake her airplane from behind and below, and subsequently collide with the propeller; the Cessna then disappeared downward. The American Champion pilot performed a dead stick landing into an open meadow. The Cessna descended to the ground and was destroyed by a postcrash fire. Radar replay video showed the two airplanes traveling in the same general direction, with the trailing airplane (the Cessna) converging on the lead airplane (the American Champion). Radar contact between both airplanes was lost before the actual collision.

Probable cause

The failure of the overtaking airplane’s pilot to maintain visual contact and separation from the airplane being overtaken.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR14FA283
Event ID
20140707X70004
Case number
WPR14FA283
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. 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: fa0e33e274dc58e4faf80eda1f885a0cc3436c7201c4edbc261dd5bb595f02dc; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:07:57.896Z.