CHI83LA005 · Grumman AA-1C
Grumman AA-1C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Madison Municipal Airport (IMS) to Madison Municipal Airport (IMS)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI83LA005
- 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 AA-1C
- 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
- N8055W
- Operator
- Ralph O. Rogers · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Madison Municipal Airport (IMS), Madison, INTo Madison Municipal Airport (IMS), Madison, IN
- 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
- Ignition system, spark plug › Disconnected
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF FROM A TOUCH & GO THE ENG LOST POWER. THE #1 CYL UPPER PLUG LEAD NUT HAD BACKED OFF & THE LEAD WAS FOUND RESTING IN THE PLUG. THE #2 & #4 CYL UPPER PLUG LEAD NUTS HAD BACKED OFF & BOTH LEADS WERE NOT IN THE SPARK PLUGS BUT WERE RESTING ON THE CYL. THE #4 CYL LOWER PLUG LEAD HAD BACKED OFF ALLOWING IT TO DROP OUT OF THE PLUG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI83LA005
- Event ID
- 20020917X04442
- Case number
- CHI83LA005
- 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 1982-10-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5055f8fdd4dabb5af5cf01b270daa1fca46193ccff4588a7ddc95767513cf822; retrieved 2026-09-24T00:34:42.826Z.