NYC89LA031 · Grumman AA-5
Grumman AA-5 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water while taxiing
From Allegheny County Airport (AGC) to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89LA031
- 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 AA-5
- Aircraft type
- Grumman AA-5
- 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
- N30FA
- Operator
- Stephen A. Alber · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Allegheny County Airport (AGC), W. MIFFLIN, PATo Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE), Latrobe, PA
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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 control on ground/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Taxispeed, excessive
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS UNDER THE CONTROL OF A RECENTLY CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT, TAXIING FOR DEPARTURE. HE SAID HE WAS TAXIING 6-8 MPH AND WHEN HE TRIED THE BRAKES THE LEFT ONE FAILED AND THE RIGHT WORKED, VEERING THE AIRCRAFT OFF THE TAXIWAY AND DOWN AN EMBANKMENT. THE FAA SUBMITTED A DRAWING SHOWING THAT THE AIRCRAFT LEFT 31 FEET OF SKID MARKS ON THE RUNWAY AND SLID AN ADDITIONAL 42 FEET ON A GRASSY AREA PRIOR TO GOING DOWN THE EMBANKMENT. WHEN THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED IT WAS NOTED THAT THE BRAKE PEDALS WOULD BLEED DOWN IF SLIGHT PRESSURE WAS HELD ON THEM. HOWEVER, THEY WOULD RECOVER WITH ONE PUMP OF THE BRAKES. THE PILOT HAD 2.5 HOURS IN MAKE AND MODEL WITH 1.1 HOURS AS PILOT IN COMMAND. THE FAA EXAMINER WHO FLEW WITH THIS PLT ON 2-5-88 FOR HIS PRIVATE PLT CHECKRIDE MADE A CRITICISM THAT THE PLT TAXIED TOO FAST.
Probable cause
LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WHILE TAXIING AT AN EXCESSIVE SPEED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89LA031
- Event ID
- 20001213X27344
- Case number
- NYC89LA031
- 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: 788cbe3b334a65504c65a0c04ea932c25e59acc6c779fe01bcf374085326c6e2; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:20:35.871Z.