CEN12CA130 · Maule M-7-235
Taf Aerial Services Maule M-7-235 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From South Texas Regional Airport at Hondo (HDO) to Eldorado Airport (27R)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12CA130
- 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 M-7-235
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-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
- N6129T
- Operator
- Taf Aerial Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From South Texas Regional Airport at Hondo (HDO), Hondo, TXTo Eldorado Airport (27R), Eldorado, 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 · landing roll
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
As the flight neared the destination airport, the pilot obtained information from the nearest weather reporting facility, located about 33 miles away, which indicated that there would be a left crosswind component of about 15 knots with gusts to 20 knots on the landing runway. On final approach, the pilot noted that the windsock appeared to be extended at a 45 degree angle to the runway. He made his final approach with the left wing down and slightly more airspeed than usual to compensate for the crosswind. After both main wheels were on the runway, the pilot felt the left wing lift, even with full left aileron and opposite rudder inputs. He also felt that the airplane's right wheel brake was "spongy." As the wing lifted, the airplane began to ground loop to the left, skidded off the runway and impacted terrain, which resulted in substantial damage to the wings. After the pilot exited the airplane, he noted that the windsock was fully extended perpendicular to the runway. The pilot stated that he was very experienced in crosswind landings and that he should not have relied on a distant weather facility report; rather he should have made a full pattern approach to check the windsock more closely and better assess the local wind before landing. He stated that if he had been aware of how high the crosswind actually was, he would not have landed at this airport.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate in-flight planning and decision-making, which resulted in a loss of control during a crosswind landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12CA130
- Event ID
- 20120110X52633
- Case number
- CEN12CA130
- 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. 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: c90b4846eeb1189648a26b1a485e842792cb6a57723f6cb50bfea9250db770cc; retrieved 2026-09-15T17:03:25.716Z.