WPR09CA041 · WSK PZL Mielec M-18A
A-1 Aviation WSK PZL Mielec M-18A · Accident: ground handling event while standing
From Mountain Home Municipal Airport (U76) to Mountain Home Municipal Airport (U76)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09CA041
- 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 M-18A
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec 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
- N81705
- Operator
- A-1 Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mountain Home Municipal Airport (U76), Mountain Home, IDTo Mountain Home Municipal Airport (U76), Mountain Home, ID
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Ground handling event
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported he was taxing the airplane to the active runway when he realized the airplane's tail wheel lock was engaged. With the engine still running, the pilot set the parking brake, installed the control lock and exited the airplane with the intention of manually unlocking the tail wheel. When the pilot exited the cockpit he inadvertently knocked/pushed the throttle forward, to a high power setting, and the airplane started to roll across the taxiway. The unoccupied airplane accelerated, momentarily became airborne, and collided with an airport perimeter fence and terrain. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, empennage and both wings. No pre accident mechanical malfunctions or failures were reported.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection, and, his failure to properly secure the aircraft as he left the cockpit with the engine operating, which resulted in the unoccupied airplane inadvertently becoming airborne and colliding with a fence and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09CA041
- Event ID
- 20081120X61731
- Case number
- WPR09CA041
- 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: d0d8a888d1c96469a8e83d3338e665189add9d2bdf8ff7cd192daf61ee68a1e7; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:33:52.615Z.