CHI07LA170 · American Aviation Corp. (AAC) AA-1
American Aviation Corp. (AAC) AA-1 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Lansing, IL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07LA170
- 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
American Aviation Corp. (AAC) AA-1
- Aircraft type
- American Aviation Corp (aac) 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
- N5651L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lansing, ILTo 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; 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
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Bent
- Ignition system, spark plug › Fouled
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 received substantial damage when it impacted trees and terrain following a loss of engine power after takeoff. The pilot stated that on the third takeoff, about 900 feet above ground level, the engine rpm started dropping, and the stall warning horn came on. He said he held the throttle full in, but the engine speed decreased to less than 1,000 rpm. The airplane lost altitude, and was just above power lines when the pilot saw a golf course and a road. He stated that the airplane started to buffet and he decided to land on the golf course fairway. He reported that the left wing stalled and the airplane rolled left. He pushed the nose over and recovered just prior to hitting a tree with the right wing. The airplane crashed on the golf course fairway. Postaccident inspection of the engine revealed the #1 and #3 cylinder spark plugs were fouled and the #3 exhaust valve was bent, likely resulting in the loss of engine power. No other anomalies were noted. The engine had 1,749 service hours since new without an overhaul.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power during takeoff-initial climb due to a bent exhaust valve and fouled spark plugs.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07LA170
- Event ID
- 20070711X00908
- Case number
- CHI07LA170
- 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 2007-06-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 209812852d2028d6b72f4f2416ecfa27790d5b023ac101ccdbc77dd3497356fb; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:47:57.974Z.