LAX83FA138 · Mooney M20J
C & K Aviation Mooney M20J · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From MML · MOMMOTH LAKES, CA to Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA138
- 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
- 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
- N8201V
- Operator
- C & K Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MML · MOMMOTH LAKES, CATo Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO), Santa Monica, CA
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH POWERLINES 177 AGL DURING FLT IN ADVERSE WEATHER. ABOUT 2 MILES FROM THE SITE OF THE POWERLINE COLLISION THE ACFT HAD COLLIDED WITH HILLY TERRAIN ABOUT 500 FT HIGHER THAN THE POWERLINE. THE PILOT HAD RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING AND PARTS OF HIS ROUTE WAS IMC. DURING HIS FLT ENROUTE WEATHER UPDATES SHOWED WORSE WEATHER & VFR FLT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED & A SITE TO LAND VFR WAS SUGGESTED. AT 1814 HOURS A POWER OUTAGE OCCURRED BECAUSE OF A BROKEN POWER LINE AT CA. STATE HIGHWAY 14 AND INTERSTATE 5. WITNESSES REPORTED THE WEATHER AT THAT TIME TO BE HEAVY RAINAND FOG & RPTD SEEING THE FLASH AS THE ACFT HIT THE POWERLINE. PART OF THE ACFT RUDDER WAS FOUND IN THE VICINITY OF THE BROKEN POWERLINE. THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED ABOUT 2.4 NM SOUTHWEST OF THE BROKEN POWERLINE AT 2300 FT MSL NEAR CHATSWORTHCA. THERE WAS FIRE AFTER IMPACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA138
- Event ID
- 20001214X42459
- Case number
- LAX83FA138
- 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 1983-03-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6f06f439ee1c75826678fa5f893b8fa94e3cd87870bbf73194ae1961bd550754; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:04:14.439Z.