CHI95LA232 · PZL-Mielec M-18A
PZL-Mielec M-18A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA232
- 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
- 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
PZL-Mielec M-18A
- Aircraft type
- PZL Mielec M-18
- 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
- N80225
- Operator
- James L. Deterding · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS LOADED TO A CALCULATED GROSS WEIGHT OF 10,653 FOR AN AERIAL APPLICATION FLIGHT. THE MAXIMUM CERTIFIED GROSS WEIGHT FOR THE PLANE WAS 10,360 POUNDS, BUT THE AIRPLANE WAS AUTHORIZED TO EXCEED THAT WEIGHT FOR THIS MISSION. THE PILOT PREPARED TO TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 3, SINCE RUNWAY 31 (A LONGER RUNWAY) WAS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. HE REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE RUN-UP WAS NORMAL. HE SAID THAT DURING TAKEOFF, THE AIRPLANE LIFTED OFF AND SEEMED TO BE FLYING AS ALWAYS; HOWEVER, IT THEN SETTLED BACK TO THE GROUND ABOUT 321 FEET FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE THEN ROLLED ABOUT 320 FEET BEFORE HITTING A DITCH AND A GRAVEL TRUCK. THE TRUCK DRIVER RECEIVED SERIOUS INJURIES. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE THERE WERE TWO ROWS OF TREES (ABOUT 40 FEET IN HEIGHT) SITUATED NORTH AND SOUTH, JUST TO THE EAST OF THE AIRPORT. HE SAID THE AIR WAS VERY UNSTABLE DUE TO THE TURBULENCE CREATED BY THE NORTHWEST WIND COMING OFF THE TREES. THE PILOT OF ANOTHER AIRPLANE, WHO HAD BEEN SPRAYING A FIELD NEARBY, REPORTED THAT THE WINDS WERE SHIFTING FROM THE NORTHWEST TO THE SOUTHWEST AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME AS THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate preflight planning/preparation. Factors relating to the accident were: the airplane's excessive gross weight, and the unfavorable wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA232
- Event ID
- 20001207X03905
- Case number
- CHI95LA232
- 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: 682d03612a7e024117345f3f47de69bb6698c64df73c0b1a76ae53c5900e49e8; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:10:49.490Z.