NYC02FA152 · Grumman American AA-5B
Grumman American AA-5B · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Donegal Springs Airpark (N71) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02FA152
- 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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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-5B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman American 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
- N81310
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Donegal Springs Airpark (N71), Marietta, PATo 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness observed the pilot was having difficulty starting the engine. After the engine started, the airplane was taxied to the runway. The witness then observed the airplane in a steep 45-degree left bank, until it disappeared behind corn stalks. A second witness observed the accident airplane depart from the airport and the engine "cut off and on five times" before descending to the ground. A third witness observed the airplane in a sharp bank, with the left wing tipped downward and the right wing pointed towards the sky, before it disappeared below a tree line. On a recent flight, the pilot was observed having difficulty starting the engine. He also requested maintenance assistance for a rough running magneto. The maintenance performed on the airplane included removal, cleaning, and verifying specifications of both magnetos, and all spark plugs. Review of the airplane's maintenance logs did not reveal any entries related to magneto or spark plug malfunctions. After the accident, neither the left or right magnetos could be tested due to impact and fire damage. A review of FAA-H-8083-3, Airplane Flying Handbook, revealed, "...If an actual engine failure should occur immediately after takeoff and before a safe maneuvering altitude is attained, it is usually inadvisable to attempt to turn back to the field from where the takeoff was made. Instead, it is safer to immediately establish the proper glide attitude, and select a field directly ahead or slightly to either side of the takeoff path." There were several non-populated clear areas/fields along, and on either side of, the departure path.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to operate an airplane with known mechanical deficiencies, his improper decision to return to the airport with inadequate altitude remaining, and his failure to maintain airspeed. A factor related to the accident was the malfunction of the ignition system, which resulted in a loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02FA152
- Event ID
- 20020816X01414
- Case number
- NYC02FA152
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-08-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ec6059c24e6a5182e1d32963e821d03236140cb49acb1a446f0cef1a3e392f03; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:56:06.102Z.