LAX97LA211 · Maule M-4-220C
Maule M-4-220C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Murray Field (EKA) to Q69
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97LA211
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Maule M-4-220C
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-4
- 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
- N40654
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Murray Field (EKA), Eureka, CATo Q69
- 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
- Approach
- 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 encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); Tree(s)
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airport manager reported that conditions of low clouds and fog existed at the airport at the time of the accident, and the sun was not visible. The tops of the trees, which surround the airport, were in the clouds. Visibility was about 1/4 mile. There was an area of blue sky visible north of the airport. The aircraft approached from the north to the 2,500-foot-long runway, but overshot the approach and was unable to land. The pilot applied full engine power and started a go-around. The airport manager reported losing sight of the aircraft in the fog, but he heard it maneuvering near the airport until he heard the sound of an impact. The pilot indicated that he maneuvered the airplane onto a base leg; then realized he was too low and added power. The engine responded after 'some hesitation,' then the airplane impacted trees and crashed. The 14-year-old passenger reported that they entered the clouds as they circled the airport, and she could only see the ground intermittently. She briefly saw trees, the pilot called 'hang on,' then they crashed. Another witness reported the visibility was about 100 feet under overcast clouds.
Probable cause
continued VFR flight by the pilot into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), and his failure to maintain sufficient altitude/clearance from tall trees. The weather conditions (low ceiling and fog) were related factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97LA211
- Event ID
- 20001208X08172
- Case number
- LAX97LA211
- 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: 00881d6829ea21e7e1363133ab72401e9054c46300378a099983872dc704fdb6; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:02:16.415Z.