CHI95FA114 · Maule M-5-235C
Maule M-5-235C · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Lake Elmo Airport (21D) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95FA114
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
Maule M-5-235C
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-5
- 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
- N56349
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Elmo Airport (21D), ST. PAUL, MNTo 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
- Landing
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Weather condition › High wind
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Rush City, MN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS REPORTED THAT SHE OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE AS IT ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN. SHE DESCRIBED THE AIRPLANE BOUNCING AND ROLLING, AND THAT IT 'WOBBLED' FROM SIDE TO SIDE, THEN DESCEND ABRUPTLY TOWARD THE GROUND. THE AIRPORT MANAGER ESTIMATED THE WINDS WERE 'FROM THE SOUTHEAST AND GUSTING TO ABOUT THIRTY KNOTS.' EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION. THE PILOT HAD BEEN ISSUED A PRIVATE PILOT CERTIFICATE 7 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. AT THE TIME OF APPLICATION THE PILOT LISTED 64.7 TOTAL FLIGHT HOURS. TOXICOLOGICAL TESTS REVEALED 0.021 UG/ML CHLORPHENIRAMINE AND 0.098 UG/ML DIPHENHYDRAMINE IN THE BLOOD SPECIMEN. THERAPEUTIC LEVELS ARE 0.016-0.070 AND 0.100 RESPECTIVELY. CHLORPHENIRAMINE AND DIPHENHYDRAMINE ARE ACTIVE INGREDIENTS IN MANY NONPRESCIPTION COLD AND ALLERGY MEDICATIONS, AND CAN CAUSE DROWSINESS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POOR JUDGMENT IN ATTEMPTING TO LAND IN THE EXISTING WIND CONDITIONS. HIS LACK OF EXPERIENCE WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95FA114
- Event ID
- 20001207X03245
- Case number
- CHI95FA114
- 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: 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: 2fc2da6400fee4c54304cbe9c08dbe96e2f17c3511a3f698f0df7e610b9f0d97; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:50:08.873Z.