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NYC03LA159 · Maule M-4-220C

28 Jun 2003 · Taunton, MA, United States

Maule M-4-220C · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing

From Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA) to Taunton Municipal King Field (TAN)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC03LA159
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
Unknown
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-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
N2030U
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA), Hyannis, MATo Taunton Municipal King Field (TAN), Taunton, 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
Landing · landing roll
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
Loss of control on ground/water
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 › Directional control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

As the tail-wheeled equipped airplane touched down, with the commercial pilot at the controls, it began to drift left of centerline. The certified flight instructor (CFI) instructed the commercial pilot to use right aileron to correct the situation, which the commercial pilot responded, "I've got it; I've got it; I've got it." The airplane departed the left side of the runway, and onto the grass. The CFI "stepped firmly" on the right rudder in an effort to straighten the airplane; however, the momentum was still pulling the airplane to the left. Without the CFI's instruction, the commercial pilot added full power, followed immediately by a reduction of power by the CFI. The airplane continued to the left, and the commercial pilot added about one-quarter to one-half power from where the CFI had set it. The airplane then rolled over, and came to rest in a ditch. The commercial pilot added that the accident could have been prevented by "earlier recovery, more experience by pilot and instructor."

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control while landing and the CFI's delayed remedial action.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC03LA159
Event ID
20031009X01686
Case number
NYC03LA159
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, coordinates. 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: 844599ea444fbf331e4f4c8b51e27f3a41328644480de0c30399b27716a8335a; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:05:26.737Z.