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LAX07CA164 · Maule MXT-7-180A

12 May 2007 · Red Lodge, MT, United States

Maule MXT-7-180A · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid during landing

From Laramie Regional Airport (LAR) to Red Lodge Airport (RED)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX07CA164
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-7-180A

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
N10484
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Laramie Regional Airport (LAR), Laramie, WYTo Red Lodge Airport (RED), Red Lodge, MT
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 · flare/touchdown
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
Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
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 › Aborted landing, delayed
  • Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Proper alignment, 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 airplane encountered a crosswind gust, drifted off the runway, dragged a wing, and ground looped during the pilot's attempted landing. The pilot said that while on short final to the active runway, the airplane encountered a wind shear and crosswind gusts. The airplane descended rapidly and the pilot added full engine power in an attempt to abort the landing. The airplane drifted to the right of the runway centerline and he realized that it would not be able to achieve the performance necessary to climb out. The pilot retarded the throttle to idle and elected to land. The right wing contacted uneven terrain adjacent to the runway and the airplane ground looped. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine.

Probable cause

The pilot's inadequate compensation for gusty crosswind conditions and failure to maintain proper runway alignment that resulted in dragging a wing and ground looping. Also causal was the pilot's delayed decision to abort the landing.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX07CA164
Event ID
20070628X00833
Case number
LAX07CA164
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: 1eee883f66d7438ef8cb3b3d9676b5f07ca5bd7c72d95d7be4ea95287508e977; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:49:35.662Z.