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NYC91FA060 · Mooney M20J

17 Jan 1991 · Brookline, NH, United States

Daniel Webster College Mooney M20J · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From Nashua Airport / Boire Field (ASH) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
NYC91FA060
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
Visual Meteorological Cond

Mooney M20J

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
N804DW
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Nashua Airport / Boire Field (ASH), Nashua, NHTo 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
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
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

  • Aircraft control › Not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, not attained

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Brookline, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE STUDENT (A RATED PILOT) & THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) TOOK OFF AT 1645 EST ON A FLIGHT TO PROVIDE EXPERIENCE IN COMPLEX AIRCRAFT TO THE STUDENT. THE LESSON WAS TO INCLUDE MINIMUM CONTROL AIRSPEEDS/STALLS, STEEP TURNS, AND EMERGENCY PROCEDURES. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND WHERE IT HAD CRASHED ON A WOODED HILLTOP. THERE WERE NO KNOWN WITNESSES TO THE ACCIDENT. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THE AIRCRAFT HAD CRASHED IN A STEEP DESCENT. THE ONLY DAMAGE TO TREES WAS DIRECTLY ABOVE THE WRECKAGE. CUT TREE LIMBS WERE FND IN THAT AREA. THE LEADING EDGES OF BOTH WINGS WERE COMPRESSED REARWARD, THE INSTRUMENT PANEL WAS DISPLACED FORWARD, THE BACK OF THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT WAS DISPLACED REARWARD, AND THE LEFT FRONT SEAT WAS DISPLACED TO THE RIGHT & SLIGHTLY REARWARD. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. OFFICIAL TWILIGHT WAS AT 1711 EST.

Probable cause

THE FAILURE OF THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) TO ATTAIN REMEDIAL ACTION AFTER CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE WAS LOST FOR AN UNKNOWN REASON.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC91FA060
Event ID
20001212X16366
Case number
NYC91FA060
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: f5831f019185d2683df64e07ffb2c0a7609b6d250a9d52724bed71a0590f2d66; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:01:05.743Z.