SEA92FA101 · Mooney M20F
Mooney M20F · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Dawson Community Airport (GDV) to Minot International Airport (MOT)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92FA101
- 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
- 4 · 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 M20F
- 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
- N2920L
- Operator
- Fischer, Richard C. & Verril J
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dawson Community Airport (GDV)To Minot International Airport (MOT), Minot, ND
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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, excessive
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in aircraft's ability
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE MOONEY M20F RETRACTED HIS LANDING GEAR ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TIRES LIFTED OFF THE RUNWAY. HE CONTINUED TO ACCELERATE WHILE FLYING VERY LOW OVER THE AIRFIELD, AND THEN EXECUTED A STEEP RIGHT HAND 180 DEGREE TURNING PULL-UP. NUMEROUS PILOT-RATED WITNESSES STATED THAT DURING THIS PULL-UP THE AIRCRAFT APPEARED TO BE FLYING JUST ON THE EDGE OF A STALL. HE THEN PROCEEDED TO THE APPROACH END OF THE AIRFIELD, ENTERED A DESCENDING TURN AND THEN EXECUTED A HIGH SPEED, LOW LEVEL PASS. DURING THIS PASS A HELIUM FILLED BALLOON WAS RELEASED FOR THE PILOT TO ATTEMPT TO BURST WITH THE AIRCRAFT'S PROPELLER. AT THE CONCLUSION OF THIS PASS, THE PILOT MADE A RAPID CLIMBING PULL-UP TO THE LEFT, REACHING AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 300 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. THE BANK ANGLE AT THE TOP OF THE CLIMBING TURN WAS ESTIMATED BY THE WITNESSES TO BE APPROXIMATELY 50 DEGREES. THE AIRCRAFT MAINTAINED APPROXIMATELY THE SAME ANGLE OF BANK AS IT DESCENDED TOWARD THE TERRAIN, ULTIMATELY IMPACTING NEAR THE RUNWAY.
Probable cause
AN EXCESSIVE RATE OF DESCENT, AND THE PILOT'S OVERCONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF AND THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92FA101
- Event ID
- 20001211X14717
- Case number
- SEA92FA101
- 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: 138321d8bd5ceba54d14b60c7940479775e77c3905ba61dbb6df1bb098ef5a9c; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:12:01.969Z.