WPR19CA069 · Champion 7GCBC
Champion 7GCBC · Accident: nose over/nose down during landing
From Helena Regional Airport (KHLN) to Helena Regional Airport (KHLN)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR19CA069
- 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
Champion 7GCBC
- Aircraft type
- 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
- N822TT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Helena Regional Airport (KHLN), Helena, MTTo Helena Regional Airport (KHLN), Helena, MT
- Aircraft age
- About 47 years (built 1972)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Nose over/nose down
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, during the local pleasure flight, the engine started to run roughly and that he thought that it was due to carburetor ice. The pilot applied carburetor heat, and after about 3 minutes, the engine still did not seem like it was running smoothly. The pilot initiated a climb; however, the airplane would not gain altitude, so he chose to make a precautionary landing on a sandbar in a river. After touchdown on the rough and bumpy surface, the pilot applied braking action. The wheels dug into the soft sand, and subsequently the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted.
The wings and the left lift strut were substantially damaged.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the engine or airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The nearest weather reporting facility, located about 27 nautical miles northwest of the accident site, reported that, about the time of the accident, the temperature was 30°F and the dew point was 16°F, which was near the range of atmospheric conditions being conducive to icing at glide and cruise power settings.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control during a precautionary landing on an uneven, soft surface.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR19CA069
- Event ID
- 20190119X92554
- Case number
- WPR19CA069
- 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: 80377981327a359e371b324543c0a8c4288a1f198a9ee95518a7ec2ed3a86448; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:33:00.730Z.