- Date
- October 10, 2025, 18:45 local (23:45 UTC)
- Place
- Bonilla, SD
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N53853Bellanca 7GCBC
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Status
- Completed · report January 15, 2026
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration - Rapid City FSDO
- FAA report
- 20251010014609A
- Case key
- 201859
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s inadequate flight planning and his failure to maintain aircraft control during the precautionary off-airport landing.
Findings · 4
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot was conducting a personal flight when he realized that he would not be able to return to his private airstrip before sunset. The pilot decided to make a precautionary landing in a harvested soybean field. The pilot stated that the selected field was hillier than it appeared from altitude, and the airplane bounced upon touchdown, the propeller struck the ground, and during the sudden deceleration the airplane nosed over in the field. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings, vertical stabilizer, and the rudder. The pilot did not report any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N53853
- Reported as
- Bellanca 7GCBC
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 908-76
- Built
- 1976
- Airframe hours
- 2,507
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-A2B, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Aerobatic; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 28, 2025
- Departed
- PVT · Tulare, SD
- Destination
- PVT · Tulare, SD
- Airport
- NA · Na
- Equipment
- Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 71
- Injuries
- Minor
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Sport pilot
- Last flight review
- May 28, 2020
- Seat
- Front
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 352.8 total · 145.6 in this make and model · 352.8 as pilot in command · 9.1 in the last 90 days · 4.9 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 70 °F, dew point 36 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.19 inHg
- Turbulence
- Severe
- Observed at
- HON, 15 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KHON 102255Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 21/02 A3019 RMK AO2 SLP227 T02060022=
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on January 15, 2026, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 5.2 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N53853 · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.