WPR12LA207 · Maule MX-7 235
Maule MX-7 235 · Accident: runway excursion during landing
From Anacortes Airport (74S) to Roche Harbor Airport (WA09)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12LA207
- 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 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
- N114MK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Anacortes Airport (74S), Anacortes, WATo Roche Harbor Airport (WA09), Roche Harbor, WA
- Aircraft age
- About 27 years (built 1985)
- 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
- Runway excursion
- 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 systems
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/owner was conducting a short personal flight in the tailwheel-equipped airplane. The departure, flight, and approach to the paved 30-ft by 3,593-ft runway were all normal, and the wind was calm. The pilot made a normal and uneventful three-point landing, but immediately after touchdown, the airplane veered sharply to the left. The pilot applied full right rudder and some right brake, but he was unable to keep the airplane on the runway. The airplane departed the left side of the runway, traversed an adjacent grassy area, and struck a drainage ditch about 50 ft from the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage.
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the left brake master cylinder piston rod was damaged such that it could prevent release of brake pressure. The damage was attributed to normal operation of the parking brake, during which a locking lever formed multiple cuts and ridges in the rod, and, under certain conditions, could prevent the free travel required for release of brake pressure. Although the damage to the piston rod would have been detectable by a detailed inspection, its nature, extent, and location limited its ability to be detected under the scope of a typical annual inspection. In addition, the pilot had not had any previous occurrences of dragging or stuck brakes, which would have warranted a more detailed inspection of the brake system components. Once airborne, the pilot had no way to detect, prevent, or eliminate a locked wheel due to this condition.
Probable cause
A damaged brake master cylinder piston rod, which resulted in a landing with the left brake applied. The damage was a result of normal parking brake operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12LA207
- Event ID
- 20120515X13641
- Case number
- WPR12LA207
- 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: 3301034800c8e870991e107d609f1f2e27698edd8d5a13eadc6f78675e8ee2f1; retrieved 2026-09-15T18:07:21.800Z.