LAX08LA154 · Maule MX-7-235
Maule MX-7-235 · Accident: VFR encounter with IMC en route
From Skypark Airport (BTF) to Helena Regional Airport (HLN)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08LA154
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Maule MX-7-235
- Aircraft type
- Maule MX-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
- N5657Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skypark Airport (BTF), Bountiful, UTTo Helena Regional Airport (HLN), Helena, 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
- En route
- Defining eventThe 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
- VFR encounter with IMC
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot received a weather briefing prior to departing on a cross-country personal flight. The weather briefer informed the pilot that a visual flight rules flight was not recommended along his intended route due to low ceilings, limited visibilities, and precipitation. While following an interstate highway at low altitude, the airplane collided with high-tension power lines that crossed the interstate, and came to rest in trees approximately 130 yards northwest of the lines. Fog, low clouds, snow, and rain were present in the area of the accident site both before and after the accident. The surviving passenger reported that no engine or airframe malfunctions were encountered during the flight.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to continue flight at low altitude in instrument weather conditions and his failure to maintain clearance from a power line. Contributing to the accident were low cloud and visibility conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08LA154
- Event ID
- 20080606X00808
- Case number
- LAX08LA154
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 63ea90511548325035545537df9d571610b7224bef0a718901943c38483b93b6; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:06:32.892Z.