NYC83FU009 · American Aerolights EAGLE XL
American Aerolights EAGLE XL · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Dart Airport (D79) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83FU009
- 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
American Aerolights EAGLE XL
- Aircraft type
- American Aerolights EAGLE XL
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dart Airport (D79), Mayville, NYTo 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 103: Ultralight
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Production/design personnel › Acft/equip, inadequate design
- Reduction gear assembly › Failure, total
- Reduction gear assembly › Other
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE ULTRALIGHT WAS IN LEVEL FLT AT APRX 150 TO 200 FT AGL WHEN THEY HEARD A LOUD BANG. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE ENG NOISE CEASED & THE VEHICLE ENTERED A SPIRALING DESCENT & CRASHED. A RIP IN THE WING CENTER SECTION WAS SEEN PRIOR TO IMPACT. AN EXAM REVEALED THAT THE LARGE REDUCTION ASSEMBLY, DRIVE PULLEY HAD SEPARATED FROM THE DRIVE SHAFT. 2 OF 4 CONNECTING BOLTS WERE FOUND FRACTURED & THE OTHER 2 HAD SEPARATED WITHOUT FRACTURING. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF LOOSENESS & FRETTING PRIOR TO THE BOLT FAILURES. RED PAINT HAD TRANSFERRED FROM THE PROP TIPS TO THE WING STRUTS. THEPROP TIPS HAD SEPARATED & THE WING FABRIC HAD TORN AT THE WING ROOTS ON EACH SIDE OF THE CENTER SECTION. THE FAILED & MISSING BOLTS HAD BEEN INSTALLED DURING A DRIVE SHAFT PULLEY ADAPTER HUB RETROFIT, APRX 3 FLT HRS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT,BEFORE THE PLT PURCHASED THE ULTRALIGHT FROM A PREVIOUS OWNER. NO WASHERS, TORQUE VALUES OR SAFETYING REQUIREMENTS WERE SPECIFIED FOR THE BOLTS IN THE RETROFIT INSTRUCTIONS & THE BOLTS HAD NOT BEEN SAFETY WIRED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83FU009
- Event ID
- 20001214X44319
- Case number
- NYC83FU009
- 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 1983-08-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e472226c11d0ee592572c3d12b0ef0672c641c86f10edabc5ad0f7f4a5b19791; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:23:29.015Z.