GAA18CA111 · Maule M 6 235
Alas Viejas Maule M 6 235 · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
From Dilley Airpark (24R) to Dilley Airpark (24R)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA111
- 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 6 235
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-6
- 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
- N56548
- Operator
- Alas Viejas
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Dilley Airpark (24R), Dilley, TXTo Dilley Airpark (24R), Dilley, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 35 years (built 1983)
- 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
- Taxi
- 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 collision
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, during taxi at night, he turned off his anti-collision lights because they were, "creating a disco effect." On the taxiway, and heading to his hangar, he noticed an automobile that was converging on the same taxiway. The pilot expected the automobile to turn off the taxiway. When the vehicle did not turn, the pilot increased the throttle and turned the lights on and off to get the drivers attention. However, the automobile and the airplane collided.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the forward right-side fuselage and the right-wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The ground vehicle driver’s decision to drive on an active taxiway at night and failure to yield to taxiing aircraft, resulting in a collision with a taxiing aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA111
- Event ID
- 20180125X95738
- Case number
- GAA18CA111
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2018-01-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fcfe9ccbb9ebb1d42b1508635f64c49cc84f55a9dbd2f542189a53e404682f87; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:22:26.850Z.