LAX83LA468 · Mooney M20K
Mooney M20K · Accident: loss of control in flight
From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN) to Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83LA468
- 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
- 3 · 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
- N3624H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN), Grand Canyon, AZTo Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHEN THE CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT DID NOT ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION, CONCERNED RELATIVES REPORTED IT OVERDUE. A SEARCH WAS INITIATED, BUT THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT FOUND DURING THAT SEARCH. HOWEVER, IT WAS LOCATED ON 11/19/91, WHILE A SEARCH WAS BEING MADE FOR ANOTHER AIRPLANE. AN NTSB WEATHER STUDY DISCLOSED THAT VISUAL METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS PREVAILED AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. AN EXAMINATION DISCLOSED THE AIRPLANE HAD STRUCK THE GROUND IN A STEEP, NOSE DOWN, HIGH VELOCITY, RIGHT WING DOWN ATTITUDE. THE WRECKAGE GROUND PATH EXTENDED ABOUT 246 FEET WITH DEBRIS SCATTERED ABOUT A 120 DEGREE FAN SHAPED ARC FROM THE INITIAL IMPACT CRATER. ALL OF THE AIRPLANE'S FLIGHT CONTROLS & MAJOR COMPONENTS WERE FOUND AT THE MAIN WRECKAGE AREA. THE PROPELLER BLADES DISPLAYED EXTENSIVE ENGINE POWER SIGNATURES. THE AUTOPILOT SLIDE SWITCH WAS FOUND IN THE ON POSITION AND THE PITCH TRIM WHEEL WAS IN THE MAX UP POSITION. NO PREIMPACT AIRFRAME FAILURE WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
AN IN-FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83LA468
- Event ID
- 20001214X44237
- Case number
- LAX83LA468
- 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 1983-08-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 32c1822f358aebe0d88d5ce391ea05710c84f347018935bb638401cfa8b87345; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:23:17.949Z.