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ERA25LA152 · Maule M7 235C

20 Mar 2025 · Birdsboro, PA, United States

Maule M7 235C · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing

From Keller Brothers Airport (08N) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ERA25LA152
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
0
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 M7 235C

Aircraft type
Maule M7
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
N4224L
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Keller Brothers Airport (08N), Lebanon, PATo not recorded
Aircraft age
About 23 years (built 2002)
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

  • Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
  • Personnel issues › Action/decision

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that he attempted to land at his home airstrip using a “limp windsock” to assess the wind conditions. Although aware of an approaching storm and the potential for shifting winds, he proceeded with the landing on runway 26. He landed with a quartering tailwind on a short runway with limited go-around options. The landing initially appeared normal; however, the wind suddenly shifted direction after touchdown and the airplane became unstable and flipped over. Both of the airplane’s wings were substantially damaged. The pilot later stated that he over-relied on the windsock and underestimated the impact of the changing weather. He reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

Probable cause

The pilot’s decision to land with a quartering tailwind in shifting wind conditions, which resulted in a loss of control and nose-over.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA25LA152
Event ID
20250321199892
Case number
ERA25LA152
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, 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: c32ef5e4cda322f84ebe2f2ae6a56e6d02fa1131ccfdac47b135ae8ad28462f2; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:45:09.368Z.