CHI83FAMS1 · Grumman AA-1
Grumman AA-1 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Muskegon County Airport (MKG) to Manitowoc County Airport (MTW)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI83FAMS1
- 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
- 1 · 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-1
- Aircraft type
- Grumman 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
- N6214L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Muskegon County Airport (MKG), Muskegon, MITo Manitowoc County Airport (MTW), Manitowoc, WI
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Manitowoc, WI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT DISAPPEARED FROM RADAR CONTACT WHILE OVER LAKE MICHIGAN. THIS ACFT HAD DEPARTED BALTIMORE MD AT 1142 CDT TO FLYTO MANITOWOC, WI. THE LAST ENROUTE STOP FOR FUEL WAS AT MUSKEGON MI AT 2040 CDT. THE WEATHER WAS VMC BUT THE NIGHT WAS DARK. NO FLT PLAN WAS FILED. THE ACFT IS ASSUMED DESTROYED BECAUSE A PART OF THE ACFT WITH THE DATA PLATE AND SERIAL # AA1-0414 ON IT WAS FOUND ON A REMOTE BEACH OF LAKE MICHIGAN SOUTH OF ARCADIA ON 7/19/83. THE ACFT DEPARTED MUSKEGON AT ABOUT 2110 CDT WITH A FULL LOAD OF FUEL. AT ABOUT 2145 CDT THE PILOT REPORTED BY RADIO THAT HE HAD LOST AN ENGINE CYLINDER AND WAS GOING DOWN. THE EMERGENCY BEACON CODE WAS PICKED UP BY MUSKEGON APPROACH CONTROL AT A POINT ABOUT 55 MILES NORTHWEST OF MUSKEGON. NO ELT SIGNAL WAS HEARD. THE PILOT IS MISSING AND PRESUMED TO BE FATALLY INJURED. THE COASTGUARD SUSPENDED SEARCH AT 1600 CDT ON JULY 10, 1983 PENDING FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI83FAMS1
- Event ID
- 20001214X43648
- Case number
- CHI83FAMS1
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1983-07-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a01161dfb0252191d7e45ef03499dc4e2f4a36e3446bc5cacfc0d2561876f3aa; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:31:24.017Z.