FTW85FA343 · Mooney M20J
Mooney M20J · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From TO4 · Georgetown, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA343
- 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
- Instrument 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
- N4081H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From TO4 · Georgetown, TXTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Descent, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, performed
- Pilot in command › Hazardous weather advisory, disregarded
- Pilot in command › Lack of total instrument time
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › Underconfidence in personal ability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DESPITE A WX BRIEF DISCOURAGING VFR FLT THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PLT DEPARTED AT ABOUT 1330 CST. HIS STATED DEST WAS FT. WORTH, TX WHICH IS DUE NORTH. AFTER TAKEOFF IN VMC THE ACFT FLEW NE TOWARD AN UNKNOWN DEST. A WX STUDY INDICATED CONDITIONS ALONG THE TRACK OF FLT INCLUDED FOG, RAIN, AND THUNDERSTORMS. THE LAST PORTION OF THE FLT WAS IN THE VICINITY OF THUNDERSTORMS, HEAVY RAIN, SEVERE OR GREATER TURBULENCE, SEVERE ICING ABOVE 11,500 FT AND LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR. RADAR PLOTS RECORDED THE ACFT GROUND TRACK AND SHOWED VERY ERRATIC AIRSPEED AND COURSE DURING APRX THE LAST 25 MIN OF FLT. 4 NEAR 180 DEG TURNS WERE MADE, ALT WAS UNKNOWN. IMPACT OCCURRED ON A WESTERLY HEADING IN ROCKY, HILLY TERRAIN GEAR AND FLAPS UP. THE DESCENT ANGLE WAS APRX VERTICAL IN AN APRX 20 DEG NOSE DOWN LEFT WING LEADING ATTITUDE. THE ELT DID NOT ACTIVATE; AIR SEARCH WAS UNSUCCESSFUL AND TERMINATED ON 12-3-84. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND BY A HELICOPTER ON 9-11-85 IN THE COMMERCIAL PINE TREE FOREST. INVEST REVEALED NO PRE-IMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA343
- Event ID
- 20001214X41574
- Case number
- FTW85FA343
- 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: 9cd0c972e6596e96f28fdc922c3008407cea069a2feb71b368d872e4b04e5109; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:14:15.948Z.