American AA-1A N7254L

Summary

On 4 November 2022 at about 22:15 local time, a American AA-1A registered N7254L was involved in an accident near Sparta, Tennessee, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

4 November 2022 at 22:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Sparta, Tennessee, United States

Nearest airport

Upper Cumberland Rgnl (SRB)

Coordinates

36.0567, -85.5301

Aircraft

American AA-1A

Registration

N7254L

Category

Airplane

Year built

1972

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Flight Test

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

ERA23LA059

Nobody was injured.

A total loss of engine power due to an accumulation of carburetor ice, resulting in an off-airport landing and substantial damage to the airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

An annual inspection had just been completed on the airplane, and the following day the pilot conducted a test flight directly over the airport. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot climbed to 6,500 ft mean sea level (msl) while conducting rectangular patterns directly over the airport for several minutes and then initiated a descent to 4,500 ft msl. During the descent, without any warning, the airplane sustained a loss of engine power. The pilot was unsuccessful in his attempts to restart the engine, resulting in the need to conduct a forced landing. As he entered the airport traffic pattern, the airplane was too high to land on the runway, so he conducted a side slip to lose altitude, but over-corrected and was too low to reach the desired runway. Unable to glide to the runway, the pilot landed short of the runway on rough, hilly terrain, which resulted in substantial damage to the airframe. Postaccident examination of the engine, fuel system, and induction system revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The weather conditions reported at the time of the accident were conducive to serious carburetor icing. Examination revealed that the carburetor heat was not in use when the airplane impacted the ground based on damage signatures to the bottom side of the heat box; the carb heat butterfly valve was in the “cold air” position and could not be activated due to the deformation of the box. The pilot also did not report that he used the carburetor heat. Based on the temperature and dew point at the altitude about where the loss of engine power occurred, the conditions were favorable for serious carburetor icing at the glide power setting and very close to the cruise power setting; therefore, it is likely that carburetor ice accumulated while descending and resulted in a loss of engine power.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.