ERA14LA043 · Maule M-5-180C
Maule M-5-180C · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Marshfield Municipal George Harlow Field (GHG) to Falmouth Airpark (5B6)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14LA043
- 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-5-180C
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-5
- 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
- N76RD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marshfield Municipal George Harlow Field (GHG), Marshfield, MATo Falmouth Airpark (5B6), Falmouth, MA
- Aircraft age
- About 29 years (built 1984)
- 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 engine power (partial)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
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 that the airplane departed with adequate fuel onboard (about 40 gallons) but that, about 400 feet above ground level, the engine lost partial power. Specifically, the rpm dropped to 1,500, and the engine began to "backfire." The pilot turned the airplane to avoid some houses and performed a forced landing into trees. After the impact, a fire ensued and consumed most of the wreckage. Subsequent examination of the engine and propeller governor did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. Several engine accessories, including the magnetos and carburetor, could not be tested due to heat and impact damage. Additionally, no fuel samples could be tested because all of the fuel was consumed in the fire. The reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined in postaccident examinations because fire damage precluded testing of the fuel and several engine accessories.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14LA043
- Event ID
- 20131118X25612
- Case number
- ERA14LA043
- 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: 614a663d9ef1e5f8b1b325b380b6f1f4067bba1821c9e8d98ac3d75df74a5755; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:07:43.816Z.