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DEN83LA195 · Grumman AMERICAN AA-1C AMERICAN A

20 Aug 1983 · TEA, SD, United States

Grumman AMERICAN AA-1C AMERICAN A · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

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Event

NTSB case
DEN83LA195
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-1C AMERICAN A

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
N9634U
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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 in flight
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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
  • Pilot in command › Ground loop/swerve, not corrected
  • Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT SWERVED OFF THE RWY, COLLIDED WITH A DITCH AND NOSED OVER. THE PILOT WAS A STUDENT ON HIS 1ST SOLO AFTER OVER 42 HOURS OF DUAL INSTRUCTION. HE FLEW OVER 28 HOURS OF DUAL INSTRUCTION AND MADE ABOUT 60 LANDINGS DURING THE LAST 90 DAYS. ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT THE STUDENT WAS USING RWY 16. THE WIND WAS FROM 140 DEGREES AT 4 TO 6 KTS. THIS EQUATES TO A CROSSWIND COMPONENT FROM THE LEFT OF 2 KTS. THE CFI OBSERVED THE STUDENTS FIRST SOLO LANDING. HE SAID THE ACFT DRIFTED OFF TO THE LEFT DURING THE FLARE. THE ACFT BOUNCED ON THE GRASS BESIDE THE RWY, WENT INTO A DITCH AND BOUNCED BACK INTO THE AIR WHEN IT HIT THE OPPOSITE EMBANKMENT. THEN THE ACFT LANDED ON ITS NOSE AND NOSED OVER. THE PILOT SAID HE TRIED TO CORRECT BACK TO THE RWY DURING FLARE BUT THE ACFT 'STARTED TO GO SIDEWAYS'. WHEN HE SAW THE GRASSTHE STUDENT ADDED POWER TO GO-AROUND BUT THE STALL WARNING SOUNDED AND HE PULLED THE POWER OFF BEFORE HITTING THE DITCH.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN83LA195
Event ID
20001214X44122
Case number
DEN83LA195
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: 413a0c8050498ce28c7826c317150e284fbc1d97873790626ce0cc6f8bb2814b; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:31:10.524Z.