CHI93FAMS4 · Mooney M20K
Mooney M20K · Accident: missing aircraft
From 3HO to UNKNOWN
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93FAMS4
- 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
- 1 · 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
Mooney M20K
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M20
- 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
- N5655M
- Operator
- Ronald E. Venema · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3HOTo UNKNOWN
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Unknown
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Missing aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS OBERVED DEPARTING IN LIGHT MIST BY THE AIRPORT MANAGER AND THREE OTHER PERSONS. THE AIRPLANE WAS OVERDUE AND A SEARCH WAS CONDUCTED BY THE CIVIL AIR PATROL AND THE U.S. COAST GUARD. THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF LAKE MICHIGAN AND SURROUNDING LAND MASS WAS SEARCHED WITH NEGATIVE RESULTS. APPROXIMATELY ONE WEEK PRIOR TO THE MISSING AIRPLANE'S DEPARTURE AN EMPLOYEE OF THE PILOT WAS DIRECTED BY THE PILOT TO CHANGE THE VACUUM PUMP. THE MECHANIC WAS NOT ABLE TO DO SO. THE MECHANIC STATED THE PILOT TOLD HIM HE HAD REMOVED THE PUMP LATER IN THE WEEK. NO EVIDENCE OF SUCH MAINTENANCE WAS FOUND DURING THE INVESTIGATION. PIECES OF AN AIRPLANE HAVE BEEN FOUND ALONG THE MICHIGAN LAKESHORE WHICH MATCH THE AIRPLANE'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR COLORS. THE PILOT IS PRESUMED DEAD.
Probable cause
undetermined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93FAMS4
- Event ID
- 20001211X12554
- Case number
- CHI93FAMS4
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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. 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: d26b218ebb2d6088d805dc24d1c254b66108029a9cb8aaaf902c43e9b0083f46; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:30:49.592Z.