NTSB Factual Report

On April 16, 2001, approximately 1300 Pacific daylight time, a Maule M-4-210C, N51463, registered to and operated by the pilot, departed runway 20 during takeoff roll at Boundary County Airport, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and was substantially damaged. The pilot of the aircraft, whose private pilot certificate was listed as "canceled" in the FAA airman registry, was the sole occupant of the aircraft and received minor injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR 91 personal flight, which was bound for Sandpoint, Idaho.

The pilot reported that his wife had told him she wanted a divorce the day before the accident, and stated: "I believe now I was not prepared to taxi the aircraft, lack of concentration due to stress [sic]." The pilot stated that "the aircraft rudders worked fine on lineup" with the runway, and that there was a right quartering headwind (wind from 210 to 230 degrees magnetic at 6 to 10 knots). The pilot stated that he applied power, the tail went up, and the aircraft started drifting left. He stated that he then tried to apply right rudder, but "I had left a small cockpit electric heater on [the] floor by [the] rudder pedals, which moved forward [and] locked up [the] rudder pedals." He reported that he was unable to correct the drift and that he then "chopped power" and applied brakes. However, the aircraft went off the left side of the runway, collapsing the right main landing gear and damaging a wing. The pilot indicated on his NTSB accident report that no mechanical malfunction or failure was involved in the accident.

The FAA airman registry indicated that the pilot had held a private pilot certificate with airplane single-engine land and airplane single-engine sea ratings, but that its status was "canceled" as of the time of the accident. The airman registry also indicated that the date of the pilot's last FAA third-class medical examination was November 3, 1993. The pilot did not provide any more current FAA medical certificate to investigators. The pilot indicated that he did not have a current flight review as per 14 CFR 61.56. The pilot also reported that the date of the airplane's last annual inspection was June 1992, and stated that he had lost the aircraft logbooks while moving out of his house the morning after the accident.

NTSB Probable Cause

Inadequate preflight inspection/preparation of the aircraft by the pilot and consequent foreign object fouling of the rudder control, rendering directional control impossible. A factor was the pilot's distraction/preoccupation with personal problems.