CEN18LA223 · Aeronca 7BCM
Aeronca 7BCM · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Excelsior Springs, MO (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA223
- 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 7BCM
- 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
- N9098C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Excelsior Springs, MO (private airstrip)
- Aircraft age
- About 71 years (built 1947)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was conducting his first flight in the airplane that he purchased earlier the same day. The pilot stated that he did not identify any anomalies during his preflight inspection of the airplane and that the fuel tank had been topped-off before the flight. He reported that the engine started normally and that he observed no anomalies during two separate engine run-ups that he completed before takeoff. He noted that he verified full engine speed, checked proper operation of both magnetos, and cycled the carburetor heat control during both engine run-ups.
The pilot reported that after an uneventful takeoff, about 200 ft above ground level, the engine suddenly lost power. The pilot stated that the engine was partially running but was unable to produce enough thrust to sustain level flight. The pilot decided to return to the airport due to heavily wooded terrain ahead of the airplane's position. The pilot stated that he rolled the airplane into a steep left turn, and about halfway through the 180° turn, the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall at a low altitude. The pilot reported that the airplane impacted terrain in a left-wing-down, nose-down attitude. The forward fuselage, outboard left wing, and both wing struts sustained substantial damage during impact.
A postaccident wreckage examination did not reveal any evidence of mechanical malfunction that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane or its engine during the flight. The fuel samples collected after the accident were free of contamination. The cause of the partial loss of engine power could not be determined with the available evidence. It is likely that when the pilot turned back to the airport after the engine lost partial power, he did not maintain adequate airspeed and exceeded the airplane’s critical angle of attack, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
A review of available maintenance documentation revealed that the airplane did not have a current annual inspection. The pilot, who also held an aviation mechanic certificate with inspector authorization, did not apply for a ferry flight permit before the flight.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed following a partial loss of engine power after takeoff for undetermined reasons, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and an aerodynamic stall at a low altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA223
- Event ID
- 20180614X33947
- Case number
- CEN18LA223
- 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, cause areas. 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: 6a97b4df897d75360f7d90cec7a8099116defabff6c1dcecda9c91ea53ffae3f; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:29:52.230Z.