NYC85LA096 · Maule M-5-235C
Maule M-5-235C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Montgomery County Airpark (GAI) to Pittsfield Municipal Airport (PSF)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC85LA096
- 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-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
- N386X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery County Airpark (GAI), Gaithersburg, MDTo Pittsfield Municipal Airport (PSF), Pittsfield, MA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pittsfield, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A PREFLT WX BRIEFING, THE PLT WAS ADVISED OF POSSIBLE MODERATE ICING IN CLOUDS FROM THE SURFACE TO 4000 FT. WHILE IN FLT, STRUCTURAL ICING CONDITIONS WERE ENCOUNTERED & RIME ICE ACCUMULATED ON THE WINDSHIELD. ALSO, CARB ICE CONDITIONS WERE ENCOUNTERED & FULL CARB HEAT WAS APPLIED. THE ACFT WAS GETTING NEAR THE DESTINATION, SO THE PLT ELECTED TO CONTINUE. HE TURNED THE CARB HEAT OFF FOR A SHORT WHILE, THEN ABOUT 8 MI FROM THE DESTINATION ARPT, HE TURNED IT BACK ON. AS THE ACFT APPROACHED THE ARPT, ICE BEGAN ACCUMULATING RAPIDLY ON THE WINGS, TIRES, STRUTS & WINDSHIELD. THE WINDSHIELD WAS ALMOST TOTALLY COVERED WITH ICE. AFTER ENTERING THE TRAFFIC PATTERN TO LAND, THE PLT TURNED BASE WITH ABOUT 16 INCHES OF MANIFOLD PRESSURE. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE ENG LOST POWER & WOULD NOT RESTART. AN EMERG LANDING WAS MADE IN A SMALL FIELD SHORT OF THE RWY WHERE THE GEAR COLLAPSED BEFORE THE ACFT STOPPED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND DURING THE INVESTIGATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC85LA096
- Event ID
- 20001214X36043
- Case number
- NYC85LA096
- 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: 3098f3e1e2aae18c761e7b1c3203ac7cab9de9cb00145d7c25e8e4e6e5e387a4; retrieved 2026-09-23T18:10:35.696Z.