CHI91LA071 · Mooney M20K
Mooney M20K · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) to Johnson County Executive Airport (OJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91LA071
- 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
- N5809A
- Operator
- Jerry L. Ellis · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, OHTo Johnson County Executive Airport (OJC), Olathe, KS
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN DURING A BUSINESS FLIGHT. THE LOCAL SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT REPORTED THERE WAS FOG AND PRECIPITATION IN THE VICINITY AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORIGINATED IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND WITH AN EN ROUTE FUEL STOP IN COLUMBUS, OHIO. THE INTENDED DESTINATION WAS OLATHE, KANSAS. THE PILOT WAS RECEIVING VFR INFLIGHT ADVISORIES FROM AN ARTCC. AT ONE POINT THE PILOT ADVISED THE CENTER THAT HE WAS GOING TO RETRACE STEPS TO GET BELOW THE CLOUDS. THE AIRPLANE WAS LAST OBSERVED ON RADAR AT 2600 FEET MSL APPROXIMATELY 35 MILES EAST OF THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT RECEIVED TWO WEATHER BRIEFINGS FOR THE FLIGHT. RECORDS SHOW THAT THE PILOT RECEIVED 3.5 HOURS OF DUAL FLIGHT INSTRUCTION IN THE 60 DAYS PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT. THIS INCLUDED 1.5 HOURS OF BASIC INSTRUMENT TRAINING. THE PILOT BOUGHT THE AIRPLANE ONE WEEK BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S OVERCONFIDENCE IN HIS PERSONAL ABILITY, AND FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91LA071
- Event ID
- 20001212X16289
- Case number
- CHI91LA071
- 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: ffb06e08209267e7ace9327bfb071bea8c9d29105153f0006d891b3a08b65037; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:01:29.391Z.