DEN83LA225 · Mooney M20F
Mooney M20F · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Denver International Airport (DEN)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA225
- 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 M20F
- 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
- N3280F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aileron, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, not corrected
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inaccurate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT STALLED INTO THE GROUND DURING A TAKEOFF IN WINDY CONDITIONS. THE WINDS WERE REPORTED TO BE FROM 210 DEGREES AT 22 KTS GUSTING TO 28 KTS. THE PLT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING FROM THE FSS AND KNEW A STRONG CROSSWIND FROM THE LEFT WAS PRESENT. HE USED RUDDER BUT NO AILERON DURING TAKEOFF. HE SAID THE ACFT LIFTED OFF AT 70 MPH AND AT 10 FT IN THE AIR'A GUST OR SHEAR' HIT THE ACFT. THE PLANE TURNED 90 DEGREES TO THE LEFT, LOST AIRSPEED AND SETTLED TO THE GROUND. THE LEFT WING MADE GROUND CONTACT FIRST. THE ACFT SLID ACROSS A DITCH AND CAME TO REST 60 FT FROM THE SOUTH EDGE OF THE RWY.THE FAA FLT TRAINING HANDBOOK STATES THAT FULL AILERON SHOULD BE HELD INTO THE WIND AS TAKEOFF STARTS. THIS POSITION IS HELD UNTIL SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED IS OBTAINED AND THEN USED AS REQUIRED TO KEEP WINGS LEVEL. TAKEOFF POWER CREATED TORQUE OR P-FACTOR WHICH YAWS THE ACFT TO THE LEFT AND A WIND FROM THE LEFT MAY AGGREVATE THE LEFT TURNING TENDENCY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA225
- Event ID
- 20001214X44517
- Case number
- DEN83LA225
- 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: 158062308dabb0a3e48dae7f803577c0e902037162aa5bb7c878031264120f01; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:17:49.017Z.