NYC98LA159 · Grumman American AA-1A
Grumman American AA-1A · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) to Republic Airport (FRG)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC98LA159
- 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
- 0
- 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
Grumman American AA-1A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman American AA-1
- 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
- N9415L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Islip, NYTo Republic Airport (FRG), Farmingdale, NY
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Approach
- First occurrenceThe 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
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Incorrect
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was demonstrating an engine failure and forced landing to his passenger. At 800 feet above ground level, the pilot applied power to recover and the engine responded by running extremely rough with popping and coughing noises accompanied by vibration. Application of carburetor heat and use of the fuel boost pump aggravated the situation. With smoke entering the cabin, the pilot performed a forced landing to a beach, where the airplane nosed over during touchdown. Examination of the wreckage revealed fire damage in the area of the carburetor air intake box. The airplane's fuel lines were intact and no evidence of fuel leaks were observed. Disassembly of the carburetor revealed an incorrect venturi, part number 46-F12, was installed in the carburetor. The correct venturi part number was 46-F11. Review of the airplane's maintenance records revealed a two piece venturi was removed from the carburetor and a one piece venturi was installed about 50 hours prior to the accident.
Probable cause
Improper maintenance which resulted in the installation of an incorrect venturi and the subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC98LA159
- Event ID
- 20001211X10689
- Case number
- NYC98LA159
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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: 16eb376c04f44bbe687e5d83985096a2f00e0617a7124223a79932bedc6109ad; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:44:20.402Z.