ERA13LA270 · Maule BEE DEE M-4-210
Maule BEE DEE M-4-210 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Cuttyhunk, MA (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13LA270
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Maule BEE DEE M-4-210
- Aircraft type
- Maule BEE DEE M-4-210
- 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
- N9807M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cuttyhunk, MA (no airport)To 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 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
- Initial climb
- 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 in flight
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the takeoff climb from a private runway, several witnesses heard the airplane's engine "sputtering," but another witness heard the engine "running strong." All heard the impact; however, none observed the airplane on the departure roll or at impact. The airplane was found nose down within a row of trees about 300 feet past the steel pole.
Postaccident examination of the runway revealed tire tracks, similar in dimension as the accident airplane's tires, leading from the runway to, and slightly past, a knocked over windsock steel pole. However, the tracks were also similar to those of a vehicle on the property. Further, it could not be determined when the pole was knocked down. Subsequent examination of the airplane revealed a puncture in the right elevator in similar in dimension to the steel pole or a tree branch and long grass in the tailwheel assembly, similar to the grass near the windsock and where the airplane normally parked. Thus, the physical evidence on the airplane and near the windsock pole was inconclusive, and the investigation could not determine if the airplane struck the pole during the takeoff roll or not.
Further examination of the airplane revealed that there were no preimpact anomalies noted with the airplane or engine that would have precluded normal operation. Although trace amounts of an orange substance similar in color to lock-tite compound was located within the engine driven fuel pump, it is likely these specks were left in the solvent tank in which the pump was tested and inadvertently were drawn into the engine-driven fuel pump.
It is likely that shortly after takeoff, the airplane entered a stalled condition and subsequent spin from which the pilot could not recover due to the low altitude.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed after takeoff, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and loss of airplane control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13LA270
- Event ID
- 20130605X25202
- Case number
- ERA13LA270
- 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: 144b38459871ff4f6fb8da56bba649867dc4e64e736cb95c2b2d7f6a22e9ee39; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:57:53.780Z.