Grumman American AA-5 | N9659L

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be Pilot Error, in that the pilot, acting as a CFI allowed a loss of speed awareness to occur after a loss of engine power, likely due to carburetor icing, whereupon an aggressive turn was made towards an open field, and the aircraft became fully stalled while in turning flight at an altitude too low to allow for a stall recovery. The airplane crashed in a wooded area adjacent to a two-lane road and there were no known witnesses. The wreckage came to rest in a steep, nose low attitude on a heading of 270°. There was no fire. All components of the airplane were located within the wreckage debris field.

Probable Cause issued 1/14/2026 – 16 months after the accident: A total loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. Also causal was the flight instructor’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed during the forced landing attempt, which resulted in exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack and an aerodynamic stall.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft become familiar with DMMS and honor this speed during all normal flight, and flight training operations. The DTSB also recommends that at flight below 2500 AGL, not exceeding 30 degrees angle of bank, and not flying slower than DMMS.