CHI07CA165 · WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
Palmer Flying Service WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Manito Mitchell Airport (C45) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07CA165
- 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
WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
- 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
- N26756
- Operator
- Palmer Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Manito Mitchell Airport (C45), Manito, ILTo not recorded
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The agricultural airplane was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain during initial climb from runway 22 (2,784 feet by 40 feet, asphalt). Prior to departure the pilot completed a preflight inspection of the airplane, including loading the airplane with 350 gallons of an aerial application chemical and 125 gallons of avgas, and warming up the engine. The pilot reportedly did not experience any engine problems during the takeoff ground run, but he noted that the tail took longer than normal to come up into a flying position. The airplane became airborne about two-thirds down the runway. After liftoff, the pilot lowered the aircraft nose to gain additional airspeed and increased engine power because the airplane's performance was reportedly "sluggish." After the airplane had cleared some irrigation equipment the pilot lowered the nose again in an attempt to gain additional airspeed, but the airplane was "vibrating and felt rough." The pilot then noted trees and houses ahead of the airplane and began a slight right turn to clear them. The airplane "stalled" and impacted terrain while the pilot attempted to avoid the obstacles. The aircraft's type-certificate data sheet lists the maximum gross weight as being 9,260 lbs. The pilot reported that the airplane's gross weight was 10,500 lbs, but supporting documentation for the gross weight increase was not located. The airplane's weight at departure was reportedly 10,289 lbs.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain proper airspeed and his decision to attempt flight over maximum gross weight. A factor to the accident was the stall encountered while attempting to avoid obstacles.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07CA165
- Event ID
- 20070726X01023
- Case number
- CHI07CA165
- 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: 687102b1cfac299cd4eee7c8779b232cd260898343336ced20285d849119389e; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:29:45.350Z.