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NYC92FA061 · Mooney M20K

16 Feb 1992 · Wheeling, WV, United States

Mooney M20K · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

From N67 · Philadelphia, PA to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
NYC92FA061
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
Instrument 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
N231NR
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From N67 · Philadelphia, PATo not recorded
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
Landing
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
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Stall
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 › Aircraft handling, improper
  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
  • Wing › Ice

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

NTSB narrative

WHILE AT CRUISE ALTITUDE, THE PILOT REPORTED '...WE'RE VERY LOW ON OIL PRESSURE AND THE CYLINDER HEAD TEMPERATURE IS GETTING VERY HIGH.' THE PILOT WAS CLEARED TO DIVERT TO WHEELING, WV., AND EXECUTE THE VOR APPROACH TO RUNWAY 21. WITNESSES SAW THE AIRPLANE BREAK OUT OF THE CLOUDS AT APPROX 500 FT OVER THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND THEN MAKE A RT BANKED TURN OF MORE THAN 60 DEGREES. THE AIRPLANE THEN ROLLED TO THE LEFT AND STRUCK THE GROUND. POST ACCIDENT EXAM OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE. 'MODERATE' RIME ICING CONDITIONS EXISTED ALONG THE PILOT'S ROUTE OF FLIGHT AND APPROXIMATELY 1 INCH OF ICE WAS FOUND ON THE LEADING EDGE OF THE LEFT WING SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED AND HIS IMPROPER HANDLING OF THE AIRCRAFT WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AT AN ALTITUDE INSUFFICIENT FOR PROPER RECOVERY. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS ICING CONDITIONS WHICH RESULTED IN AIRFRAME ICE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC92FA061
Event ID
20001211X14166
Case number
NYC92FA061
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: de6936621b41bdc844e22a9b7b8a09e93adc3a7e9913dd23ab59cfa89b800f57; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:22:02.385Z.