IAD05LA095 · Grumman American AA-5
Grumman American AA-5 · Accident: fire en route
From Mountain Bay Air Park Inc Airport (PA49) to Lincoln Park Airport (N07)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05LA095
- 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
- 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-5
- 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
- N6061L
- Operator
- Peter John Horvat
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mountain Bay Air Park Inc Airport (PA49), Hawley, PATo Lincoln Park Airport (N07), Lincoln Park, NJ
- 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
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Electrical system › Fire
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While in cruise flight over mountains, the pilot smelled a combination of "electrical smoke and fuel." He opened the canopy and at the same time, fire came out from under the instrument panel. He then closed the canopy, and the fire diminished. He did not execute the 'In-Flight Electrical Fires' checklist, and chose to attempt a forced landing on top of a ridge in a state forest. During the landing, the airplane struck trees, and began to leak fuel. Examination of the airplane revealed fire damage in the vicinity of the airplane's battery and the electrical wiring harness that lead from the battery. The engine, engine accessories, and surrounding structure were undamaged by fire. The airplane's most recent annual inspection was completed approximately 6 months prior to the accident, and as part of the inspection, work was performed on wiring going to the cigar lighter, and the cables for the electric starter.
Probable cause
An electrical fire of unknown origin. A factor in the accident was the pilot's failure to perform the In-Flight Electrical Fires checklist.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA095
- Event ID
- 20050714X01026
- Case number
- IAD05LA095
- 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: 34e4166718368fbbc81a9102f0236a27f8b317acc93b605037c8830f465c5969; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:05:30.137Z.