MAULE MX-7-180C — Willits, CA

What happened

The pilot and passenger were landing at the 1,600-ft-long private dirt runway at the conclusion of a cross-country flight. The pilot told the passenger as they approached the runway that he may need to perform a go-around. The airplane landed hard about halfway down the runway and bounced, and the pilot added engine power to abort the landing. The airplane lifted off the ground near the end of the runway and transitioned into a climb. As the airplane crossed trees and continued toward rising terrain past the end of the runway, the passenger observed the pilot curse while pulling or rotating a knob which she identified as the throttle control. The airplane subsequently entered a left turn and began to descend nose-down. The passenger thought that the airplane may have leveled out, possibly in a left-wing-low attitude, before impact.

Postaccident examination of the airplane and engine revealed no preimpact mechanical anomalies or malfunctions that could have precluded normal operation. Evidence revealed during the investigation suggests that the airplane’s uncommanded descent to the ground was either the result of an aerodynamic stall or excessive drag as the examination discovered that the flaps may have been in a fully deployed position at the time of the accident. However, there was no performance information on the airplane available or parametric data to determine if the airplane’s flight profile was consistent with an aerodynamic stall or whether the flap deployment contributed to the uncommanded descent. Based on these findings, the accident was result of an uncommanded descent during a go-around maneuver for undetermined reasons due to a lack of available evidence. Damage to the airplane was consistent with impact in an approximately level attitude. The wing flaps were found fully extended (48°), consistent with a landing position.

Although the pilot had about 8,000 hours of helicopter flight experience, he had received his airplane single-engine land rating about two weeks before the accident and his flight experience in the accident airplane make and model was unknown. The circumstances of the accident suggest that the pilot likely failed to retract the flaps from the landing position during the attempted aborted landing, which resulted in a reduced climb performance.

The pilot’s toxicology was positive for midazolam in his hospital blood and hydromorphone and fentanyl in his urine, which were likely administered after the accident. Thus, the medications detected in the pilot’s toxicology testing were not a factor.

An editorial "what led to it / how to avoid it" analysis for this accident is generated separately and will appear here.