DEN84FA042 · Mooney M20J
Mooney M20J · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Hector International Airport (FAR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84FA042
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 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
- N1151N
- Operator
- Alfred C Pietsch · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hector International Airport (FAR), Fargo, NDTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Driver of vehicle › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT OF N1151N REPORTED THAT THE DEPARTURE ARPT HAD SOME DRIFTING SNOW WHICH CAUSED THE R BRAKE TO FREEZE AFTER TAKEOFF. WHEN THE ACFT WAS LANDED, THE R TIRE SLID UNTIL IT WORE THRU, THEN DEFLATED. THE PLT STOPPED THE ACFT ON THE RWY, INFORMED TOWER PSNL OF THE SITUATION & ASKED THEM TO SEND SOMEONE TO HELP. IN THE MEANTIME, A BOEING 737 TAXIED TO THE RWY. WHILE TAXIING, THE BOEING AIRCREW NOTED THE SILHOUETTE OF THE DISABLED ACFT, BUT DID NOT NOTICE ANY LIGHTS. THEY CONTINUED TAXIING TO THE RWY, MOVED INTO POSITION FOR TAKEOFF, BUT HELD WHILE WAITING FOR N1151N TO BE REMOVED FROMTHE RWY. THE PLT OF N115LN SAID HE LEFT HIS LIGHTS ON UNTIL HE SAW THE GND SVC VEHICLE, THEN TURNED THEM OFF WHEN THE VEHICLE WAS 'ALMOST TO US.' THE VEHICLE OCCUPANTS REPORTED THAT THE TOWER HAD ASKED THEM TO 'HURRY UP' & SAID THEY WERE DRIVING ABOUT 30 MPH. AS THEY PROCEEDED DOWN THE RWY, THEY SAW THE ROTATING BEACON OF THE BOEING 737, WHICH THEY THOUGHTWAS N1151N. THEY DID NOT SEE N1151N UNTIL AFTER THE VEHICLE HIT THE ACFT'S L WING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84FA042
- Event ID
- 20001214X45261
- Case number
- DEN84FA042
- 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 1983-12-15.
- API snapshot SHA-256: caf1cbee0c21b211e217314b83ca7aae2fe5350fdaaea1d71020344fc2b2896b; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:47:56.006Z.