MIA83LA035 · Maule M-5-220C
Maule M-5-220C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Venice Municipal Airport (VNC) to Hickory Regional Airport (HKY)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA83LA035
- 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-5-220C
- 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
- N2VB
- Operator
- Victor Beltram
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Venice Municipal Airport (VNC), Venice, FLTo Hickory Regional Airport (HKY), Charlotte, NC
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- 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
- Engine assembly, piston › Failure, total
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT DURING FLIGHT, THE ENGINE STOPPED AND THE COCKPIT FILLED WITH SMOKE. HE SHUT DOWN FUEL TO THE ENGINE AND STARTED TO GLIDE TOWARD AN AIRPORT, BUT IT WAS TOO FAR AWAY. HE THEN SELECTED A FIELD, BUT HAD TO STAY HIGH ON FINAL APPROACH TO AVOID A TV ANTENNA. THE FIELD SLOPED DOWNHILL AND THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO SLOW THE PLANE ENOUGH TO STOP BEFORE THE END. THEREFORE, HE PULLED THE PLANE UP AND CAME TO REST IN A TREE TOP. THE DOORS WERE JAMMED, SO HE BROKE OUT A WINDOW WITH HIS HANDS. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE CLIMBED OUT AND DOWN A TREE, BUT THE PASSENGER (HIS WIFE) REMAINED IN THE TREE AND WAITED TO BE RESCUED. SHE WENT TO A HOSPITAL WHERE GASOLINE WAS RINSED OFF AND SHE WAS EXAMINED. A TEARDOWN OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE #3 PISTON PIN, FRANKLIN PN 20504F, HAD FAILED. THE ENGINE HAD A TOTAL OF 367 HRS FLYING TIME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA83LA035
- Event ID
- 20020917X04942
- Case number
- MIA83LA035
- 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: 85e592077e10062da25d047bc5419f0c2b3f8aa1d44b31723ff577813c7a5d54; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:50:05.497Z.