ANC21LA017 · Maule M-6-235
Maule M-6-235 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Birchwood Airport (BCV) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC21LA017
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- N56517
- Operator
- Paul Andrews
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Birchwood Airport (BCV), Birchwood, AKTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 38 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
- Landing
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 initially reported that before landing on a snow-covered glacier, he intended to fly a low pass over the snow-covered site and briefly touchdown to determine the condition of the snowpack, a maneuver commonly known as dragging the landing site. He said that during a second downhill pass over the site, he inadvertently allowed the tailwheel-ski equipped airplane to slow while attempting to “set the track more fully”. He added that, he mis-judged the snow depth and allowed the airplane to slow too much. Subsequently, the ski tips dug into the snow and the airplane came to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, the wings, and the empennage.
The pilot initially reported there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe and engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot later reported that he believed the brake calipers had obstructed the movement of the skis. Two witness marks were observed on the skis that indicated the brake calipers had impacted the skis.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety inspector (airworthiness) examined the airplane and stated that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions found with the airplane.
Based on the available evidence, it is likely that the damage to the skis from the brake calipers were from impact damage.
Probable cause
The pilot’s selection of unsuitable terrain for landing, which resulted in the airplane encountering deep snow and coming to rest inverted.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC21LA017
- Event ID
- 20210216102639
- Case number
- ANC21LA017
- 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, cause areas. 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: 2fc22aa37c0613040af617a31bbace6f8775c81f254c7c6cb1b1e27344d8587d; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:38:53.542Z.