CEN14LA221 · American AA 1 UNDESIGNAT
American AA 1 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Meadow Lake Airport (FLY) to Meadow Lake Airport (FLY)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14LA221
- 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 AA 1 UNDESIGNAT Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- 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
- N481HY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Meadow Lake Airport (FLY), Peyton, COTo Meadow Lake Airport (FLY), Peyton, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 46 years (built 1968)
- 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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 control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the second takeoff on a maintenance test flight following an annual inspection, the airplane accelerated on the main landing gear with the tail wheel off the ground. The airplane then "aggressively veered left," and the pilot applied full right rudder to correct the path. However, the airplane continued to veer left, exited the runway, impacted runway signs and terrain, and a postcrash fire ensued. The fire precluded examination of the airplane systems.
Probable cause
The loss of directional control during takeoff for reasons that could not be determined due to the extent of fire damage.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14LA221
- Event ID
- 20140428X54704
- Case number
- CEN14LA221
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: 9ff3e83fbea11c299ee280b1a86fa85f2b241078b60e29ccfdd9ecad3fa6ca42; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:32:46.162Z.