LAX91LA100 · Maule M-6-235
Maule M-6-235 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Polacca Airport (P10)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA100
- 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
Maule M-6-235
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-6
- 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
- N5662F
- Operator
- Wolkins, Derrill O. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Polacca Airport (P10), Chandler, AZ
- 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
- 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 object
- 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 › Proper climb rate, not attained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT WAS DEPARTING A PRIVATELY OWNED DIRT RUNWAY. JUST AFTER LIFTOFF, THE TAIL WHEEL STRUCK A BARBED WIRE FENCE THAT CROSSED THE DEPARTURE CORRIDOR. THE AIRPLANE THEN CRASHED ON DESERT TERRAIN, SHEARING OFF THE ENGINE AND DESTROYING THE AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS' FAILURE TO ESTABLISH A SUFFICIENT CLIMB RATE TO AVOID STRIKING A FENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA100
- Event ID
- 20001212X16472
- Case number
- LAX91LA100
- 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: 55bffaa24f34fdeebb4b63054c51cc0cef146142f3e01f0a8422d959bbbb6223; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:39:26.823Z.