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LAX89LA108 · Mooney M20J

13 Feb 1989 · San Martin, CA, United States

Flying Country Club Mooney M20J · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

From Q99 · Hollister, CA to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX89LA108
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
0 · 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
N5726M
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Q99 · Hollister, CATo 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 · aborted
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/mush
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Dual student › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

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

NTSB narrative

THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) RPRTD THE STUDENT MADE A NORMAL APCH & HIS LANDING WAS GOOD, EXCEPT THE NOSE OF THE ACFT WAS A LITTLE HIGH. HE SAID HE TOLD THE STUDENT 'TO PULL THE THROTTLE BACK' & THAT IT WAS A GOOD LANDING, BUT THE STUDENT ADDED POWER. THE CFI TOLD THE STUDENT TO THROTTLE BACK 2 MORE TIMES. RPRTDLY, THE STUDENT THROTTLED BACK ONCE, THEN ELECTED TO GO AROUND. THE STUDENT SAID THAT DRG THE LANDING, THE ACFT BOUNCED TWICE BEFORE HE TOLD THE CFI HE WAS GOING TO MAKE A GO-AROUND. THE CFI SAID THAT DRG THE GO-AROUND, THE NOSE CAME UP & THE ACFT BEGAN A TURN TO THE LEFT DUE TO THE NOSE HI ATTITUDE & FULL POWER. THE STALL WARNING HORN SOUNDED & THE CFI TOLD THE STUDENT TO REDUCE DRAG BY RETRACTING THE GEAR & FLAPS. DRG THE OCCURRENCE, THE CFI TOOK CONTROL OF THE ACFT & TRIED TO RECOVER, BUT THE ACFT MUSHED TO THE GROUND ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RWY WITH THE GEAR RETRACTED. THERE WERE NO RPRTD MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE ACFT AT THE TIME OF THE ACDNT.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE STUDENT TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AND INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT BY THE CFI WHICH RESULTED IN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED NOT BEING MAINTAINED BY THE CFI. DURING AN ATTEMPTED GO-AROUND.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX89LA108
Event ID
20001213X27748
Case number
LAX89LA108
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 1989-02-14.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 59e50af858b9145e93fbac0cc3e1d9e3f015025d825f01a113383e3c07ef50a6; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:52:50.377Z.