DEN87FA148 · Mooney M20K
Mooney M20K · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC) to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN87FA148
- 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 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
- N4047H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC)To Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 preflight › Inadequate
- Door, cargo/baggage › Loose
- Door, cargo/baggage › Open
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate aircraft manuals
- Production/design personnel › Acft/equip, inadequate design
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG TAKEOFF, THE BAGGAGE DOOR (BD) CAME OPEN. TWR PSNL ADVISED THE PLT, BUT RECD NO DISCERNIBLE REPLY. AT APRX 100' AGL,THE ACFT PITCHED UP & ROLLED LEFT, THEN ENTERED A STEEP DSCNT & CRASHED APRX 500' LEFT OF THE RWY. EXCEPT FOR THE BD, NOPREIMPACT MECH PRBLM WAS FND. THE BD WAS FND SEPD FM THE FUSELAGE WITH THE EXTERNAL LEVER (EXT LVR) SEATED & LOCKED, BUTTHE INTERNAL LEVER (INT LVR) WAS DISPLACED TWD THE OPEN PSN & THE PROTECTIVE COVER (CVR) FOR THE INT LVR WAS FND INSIDE THE ACFT. ALSO, THE INT LVR LOCK KNOB WAS MISSING 2 OF 4 LOCKING EARS. NORMALLY, THE BD IS TO BE OPENED & CLOSED BY USING THE EXT LVR & THE INT LVR IS INTENDED TO BE ACTUATED ONLY WHEN THE BD IS USED AS AN AUX (EMERGENCY) EXIT. HOWEVER,WITH THE CVR OFF, THE INT LVR WAS VULNERABLE TO POSSIBLE MOVEMENT BY UNWARRANTED PAX ACTIVITY, INTERFERENCE WITH REAR SHOULDER HARNESS, OR INADVERTENT CONTACT WITH BAGGAGE OR RECLINING REAR SEAT. THE FLT MANUAL DOES NOT ADDRESS THE POSSIBILITY OF THE BD COMING OPEN IN FLT. ALSO, THE INT LVR IS NOT LISTED AS AN ITEM ON THE PREFLT CHECKLIST.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN87FA148
- Event ID
- 20001213X31162
- Case number
- DEN87FA148
- 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: a23a5dd4ef86814b636da9b727a04c3ab41d735738838864cc4e890a10660dd0; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:06:48.513Z.