Commotion surrounding American element of flight (5)
I believe the answer is:
stair
'element of flight' is the definition.
(as in a flight of stairs)
'commotion surrounding american' is the wordplay.
'commotion' becomes 'stir' (synonyms).
'surrounding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'stir' enclosing 'a' is 'STAIR'.
(Other definitions for stair that I've seen before include "one's seen in flight" , "Tread and riser" , "One of a flight of steps" , "Step in house" , "Rising step" .)