WPR25FA145 · Champion 7ECA
Champion 7ECA · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR25FA145
- 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
- 2 · 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 7ECA
- 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
- N6310N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL), Red Bluff, CATo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 58 years (built 1967)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and the pilot receiving instruction departed on an instructional flight. A witness who spoke to the pilots before their departure stated that the flight instructor occupied the front seat, while the pilot in the rear seat was receiving instruction in preparation for his flight instructor practical test. First responders reported that, upon arriving at the accident site, they observed the airplane engulfed in flames and an individual later identified as the pilot receiving instruction, outside of the airplane. They immediately began extinguishing the fire and providing medical assistance. The pilot was alert and stated to first responders that he had self-extricated from the airplane and that the flight instructor remained inside. He further explained that the flight instructor had been flying the airplane at the time of the accident. During the landing approach, according to the pilot, while on approach to land the flight instructor overshot the runway, initiated a go-around, applied power, and subsequently lost control of the airplane. Examination of the accident site revealed that the airplane impacted a 5-ft-tall fence post near the departure end of the 2,600-ft-long runway as well as a 40-ft tall tree along the runway’s extended centerline, before coming to rest at the base of a tree about 585 ft past the departure end of the runway. Examination of the engine did not reveal any evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures; however, thermal damage precluded a detailed examination of the engine. Although witnesses near the accident site did not observe the accident sequence, they reported no anomalies in the engine’s sound around the time of the accident. The airplane’s path past the departure end of the runway appeared to be consistent with the pilot’s statement that the accident occurred following a runway overshoot and subsequent go-around. It is likely that the decision to initiate the go-around was delayed, which resulted in collision with a fence post and trees.
Probable cause
The flight instructor’s delayed response to an improper landing approach and runway overshoot, which resulted in an impact with an airport perimeter fence and trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR25FA145
- Event ID
- 20250430200080
- Case number
- WPR25FA145
- 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, 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: 265c70eedf6e01882bc8c9e5da94e727690fd4f34ca0022bded00092bf15ab84; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:04:22.983Z.