LAX94FA278 · Mooney M20K
Mooney M20K · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From O04 · Carson City, NV to Chino Airport (CNO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94FA278
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Unknown
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
- N5788U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From O04 · Carson City, NVTo Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, CA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › Descent, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED ON A 329 NAUTICAL MILE CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT OVER MOUNTAINS AND DID NOT FILE A FLIGHT PLAN. ABOUT 88 MILES FROM THE DEPARTURE POINT, THE AIRPLANE CRASHED, BUT WAS MISSING FOR ABOUT EIGHT MONTHS. IT WAS FOUND AT ABOUT THE 12,200 FOOT LEVEL OF A MOUNTAIN, ABOUT 2 MILES WEST OF THE DIRECT COURSE LINE FROM THE DEPARTURE POINT TO THE DESTINATION. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED EVIDENCE OF AN IN-FLIGHT BREAKUP. WRECKAGE DEBRIS WAS FOUND OVER A 1,500 FOOT AREA. THE EMPENNAGE HAD SEPARATED FROM THE FUSELAGE, BUT WAS NOT FOUND, EXCEPT THE RUDDER AND ELEVATOR COUNTERWEIGHTS WERE FOUND IN DEBRIS NORTH OF THE FUSELAGE. THE AIRPLANE WAS EQUIPPED WITH AN AREA NAVIGATION SYSTEM, LORAN-C, AND A PORTABLE GPS. THE AUTOPILOT WAS FOUND ENGAGED. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEAL THAT A PITCH TRIM SPRING IN THE AUTOPILOT PITCH SERVO HAD FAILED DUE TO FATIGUE. FURTHER EXAMINATION REVEALED THE AVIONICS IN THE AIRPLANE BELONGED TO AN AIRPLANE THAT HAD BEEN REPORTED STOLEN. THERE WERE NO RECORDS FOUND OF ANY INSPECTIONS OR MAINTENANCE BEING PERFORMED ON THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT ALLOWED THE AIRPLANE TO EXCEED ITS DESIGN LIMITS (AIRSPEED AND/OR STRESS LIMITS) AFTER INADVERTENTLY ENTERING A DESCENT. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS (NIGHT OR LATE DUSK), THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ASSURE ADEQUATE MAINTENANCE/INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE, AND FATIGUE FAILURE OF A PITCH TRIM SPRING IN THE AUTOPILOT PITCH SERVO.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94FA278
- Event ID
- 20001211X13746
- Case number
- LAX94FA278
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-11-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 96488d76ecec0c00770a8d4ded94f767d418f5448313a3cd9a1206481f36e8dd; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:18:10.390Z.