DEN84LA109 · Mooney M20E
Mooney M20E · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From TUSCON, AZ to Boulder, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84LA109
- 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 M20E
- 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
- N7134U
- Operator
- Walden, David · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From TUSCON, AZTo Boulder, CO
- 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 go-around
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ENROUTE, THE PLT ELECTED TO LAND AT LAS VEGAS, NM & CHECK ON HIS DESTINATION WX. HE CALLED THE FSS WHEN THE ACFT WAS ABOUT 30 MI SOUTH OF LAS VEGAS & WAS ADVISED THAT THE WIND AT LAS VEGAS WAS FROM 230 DEG AT 20 KTS. HE SAID HE EXPERIENCED SEVERE TURBULENCE WHILE ON FINAL APCH FOR RWY 20. ALSO, HE SAID THAT ON FINAL, THIS AIRSPEED WAS SLIGHTLY FAST AT 90 MPH & THAT A 10 DEG CRAB WAS USED TO MAINTAIN RWY ALIGNMNENT. PRIOR TO TOUCHDOWN, HE USED RIGHT BANK & LEFT RUDDER. THE PLT STATED THAT JUST AS THE RIGHT WHEEL TOUCHED DOWN, A HUGE GUST BLEW THE ACFT TO THE LEFT OF THE RWY. HE ADDED POWER, BUT THE LANDING GEAR CONTACTED SAGEBRUSH. THE PLT THEN RETARDED THE POWER & THE ACFT CAME TO A STOP. THE WIND REPORTEDLY HAD GUSTED TO 30 KTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84LA109
- Event ID
- 20001214X39012
- Case number
- DEN84LA109
- 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: 1d3bf184c29e45b475a99b7df147e0c972ecce51dbb30785b4bfc6683a87df9a; retrieved 2026-09-23T20:44:41.832Z.