ATL85LA200 · American AA-1A
American AA-1A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to W22 · Woodbridge, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85LA200
- 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
American AA-1A
- Aircraft type
- 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
- N6393L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo W22 · Woodbridge, VA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine assembly, other › Low compression
- Ignition system, spark plug › Leaded
- Maintenance › Inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON A FLT TO HATTERAS, NC, THE ENG RAN ROUGH, SO AFTER LANDING, THE PLT GOT AN AUTO MECHANIC TO REMOVE THE SPARK PLUGS. THE LOWER PLUGS ON THE LEFT SIDE WERE LEAD FOWLED & WERE CLEANED WITH A WIRE BRUSH. DURING TAKEOFF ON THE NEXT FLT, THE ENG LOST PARTIAL POWER SHORTLY AFTER LIFT-OFF. THE PLT WANTED TO LAND ON A BEACH STRAIGHT AHEAD, BUT THERE WAS A RAIN SHOWER & REDUCED VISIBILILITY IN THAT DIRECTION. THEREFORE, HE REMAINED IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, BUT WAS UNABLE TO CLIMB ABOVE 200 FT. WHILE MANEUVERING FOR ALIGNMENT WITH THE RWY, HE MADE A STEEP TURN & LOST ALTITUDE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CRASH LANDED SHORT OF THE RWY. AN EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED LEAD BUILD-UPS ON THE SPARK PLUGS & LOW COMPRESSION IN THE #1 & #4 CYLINDERS. WHILE AT HATTERAS, THE ACFT HAD BEEN SERVICED WITH AUTO FUEL, BUT IT DID NOT HAVE AN STC FOR AUTO GASOLINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85LA200
- Event ID
- 20001214X36675
- Case number
- ATL85LA200
- 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: 56d59a0321d70bec548282b7fe257ba7437c055b1c6605e89fe2d5e1b598e82d; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:46:44.636Z.