ANC82DA090 · Maule M-5
Maule M-5 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From NR. MCGRATH, AK to McGrath Airport (MCG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC82DA090
- 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
- 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
- N51470
- Operator
- George E. Palmer · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From NR. MCGRATH, AKTo McGrath Airport (MCG), MCGRATH, AK
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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
- Stall/mush; 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT BEGAN A TAKEOFF FROM AN UNIMPROVED STRIP WITH TWO PASSENGERS ON BOARD. THE WINDS WERE BLOWING FROM THE NORTHEAST AT 20 GUSTING 35 KNOTS. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT AFTER THE PLANE HAD ROLLED ABOUT 300 FT, THE AIRSPEED INDICATED OVER 40 KTS. AFTER ROLLING ABOUT 380 FT, THE PILOT TOOK OFF. HE STATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT FLEW MOMENTARILY, THEN DROPPED SUDDENLY AND BOUNCED OFF THE END OF THE STRIP. THE AIRCRAFT CLIMBED SLOWLY INTO RISING TERRAIN CLIPPING THE TOP OF BRUSH. ABOUT 500 FT BEYOND THE STRIP, THE PILOT REALIZED HE WOULD NOT CLEAR LARGER TREES, SO HE LOWERED THE NOSE AND FLEW INTO THE SMALL TREES. REPORTEDLY, THE TAKEOFF AREA WAS SUBJECT TO DOWNDRAFTS WHEN THE WIND WAS BLOWING FROM THE EAST. THE ELEVATION OF THE STRIP WAS ABOUT 1800 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC82DA090
- Event ID
- 20020917X04190
- Case number
- ANC82DA090
- 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: ad341096995819a93dac19557be6866a014af9f72d041c0919a2a6e823359cfb; retrieved 2026-09-24T01:06:10.480Z.