DFW07CA101 · Maule MXT-7-180
Maule MXT-7-180 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Sierra Blanca, TX to Sierra Blanca, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07CA101
- 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 MXT-7-180
- Aircraft type
- Maule MXT-7
- 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
- N800CP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sierra Blanca, TXTo Sierra Blanca, TX
- 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 · aborted
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 1,471-hour commercial pilot lost control of the single-engine airplane while attempting to abort a crosswind landing on a closed runway. The flight had originated from the accident location where the pilot arrived earlier in the day to pick-up an aerial observer. The flight was scheduled in support of a local sheriff department that has requested assistance in locating a stolen vehicle in a remote rural area. The search for the stolen vehicle was discontinued by the pilot after he became aware that a nearby airport had issued a high wind warning for the area. The mishap took place when the pilot elected to return to the airport to drop-off the observer. The pilot reported that he planned for a straight-in approach to runway 21. The closed airport was not equipped with a windsock; however, the pilot reported that he was aware that a strong right crosswind was present when he was established on final approach with the flaps extended to the 24-degree setting. The winds at the KELP airport at the time of the accident were reported from 270 degrees at 14 knots, gusting to 26 knots. The pilot added that soon after the right main landing gear tire touched down on the runway, a gust of wind attempted to roll the aircraft to the left and the pilot elected to apply full engine power to abort the landing. During the attempted aborted landing, the airplane collided with tall bushes lining both sides of the runway, continued through a fence, and finally came to rest on a pasture east of the runway. The right wing and the both horizontal stabilizers sustained structural damage. The pilot and the observer were not injured.
Probable cause
The loss of control as result of the pilot's failure to compensate for the existing wind conditions. A contributing factor was the crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW07CA101
- Event ID
- 20070530X00655
- Case number
- DFW07CA101
- 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: b570f05031a733d9184e6bf2d27dcc5b8676f74d94a757ee093e8be0e0f5e549; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:53:00.292Z.