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ATL86FA041 · Mooney M20K

15 Dec 1985 · Langhorne, PA, United States

Mooney M20K · Accident: undershoot on approach

From Atlantic City International Airport (ACY) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ATL86FA041
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
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
N231A
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), Atlantic City, NJTo 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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Undershoot
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
Wire, transmission (marked)
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

  • Pilot in command › Altitude, below
  • Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
  • Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not followed

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

NTSB narrative

ACFT COLLIDED WITH MARKED BUT UNLIGHTED TRANSMISSION LINES 670 FT FM RWY THRESHOLD. THE LINES ARE 81 FT ABOVE THE THRESHOLD ELEVATION AND ARE MARKED BUT UNLIGHTED. THEY ARE ALSO 1193 FT FROM THE DISPLACED THRESHOLD. THE PILOT DID NOT HAVE A CURRENT MEDICAL OR PILOT CERTIFICATE. INSULIN AND CHLOROTHIAZIDE WERE FOUND IN THE PILOTS PERSONAL EFFECTS WITNESSES DID NOT RECALL SEEING ACFT LDG LIGHTS DISPLAYED PRIOR TO THE LINE COLLISION ALTHOUGH EVIDENCE OF ELECTRICAL AVAILABILITY WAS FOUND.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL86FA041
Event ID
20001214X38341
Case number
ATL86FA041
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: 8dc94bbfb03a94d77be82e727feeb833aefa83cab2df44e905fbd104b1e9f04a; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:43:59.161Z.