CHI04LA112 · Grumman American AA-1B
Grumman American AA-1B · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From Dodge Center Airport (TOB) to Airlake Airport (LVN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA112
- 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
- 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-1B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman American 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
- N9919L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dodge Center Airport (TOB), Dodge Center, MNTo Airlake Airport (LVN), Minneapolis, MN
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was destroyed during an in-flight collision with terrain after takeoff from runway 16. The accident site was located about 100 feet west of the departure runway in a level farm field. Three witnesses at the airport reported that they observed the accident pilot board the aircraft and taxi to the runway for takeoff. They reported the aircraft appeared and sounded normal. One of these individuals reported that he observed the accident aircraft takeoff. He stated that the aircraft was airborne about halfway down the runway and he watched it until it was approximately 500 feet above ground level (agl). He estimated the aircraft was approximately three-quarters of the way down the runway at that point. He stated that he returned to his activities and became aware of the accident a few minutes later when one of the other witnesses alerted him. He went out and observed the accident scene and papers blowing in the wind. The aircraft debris path was approximately 150 feet from initial impact to where the main wreckage came to rest. All airplane flight and control surfaces were present at the accident site. Winds at the departure airport were from 210 degrees at 27 knots, gusting to 34 knots, at the time. A pilot on final approach to an airport 22 miles south of the departure airport, about the time of the accident, reported an airspeed loss of 20 knots due to low level wind shear. According to the report, this occurred about 150 feet above ground level (agl). An AIRMET for occasional moderate turbulence below 12,000 feet mean sea level due to strong low level winds was in effect. The AIRMET included the departure and destination airports. The potential of low level wind shear below 2,000 feet agl over southeastern Minnesota was also noted.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure maintain climb and his failure to maintain clearance from the terrain during initial climb out after takeoff. The aircraft's low altitude, high gusty winds and low level turbulence were contributing factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA112
- Event ID
- 20040503X00547
- Case number
- CHI04LA112
- 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, coordinates. 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: 796b51d193e7fec1604f5b21d1ea811913330f3c27c4e204abc18f28cfac237f; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:29:47.105Z.