MIA01FA151 · Mooney M-20J
Mooney M-20J · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) to Albert J Ellis Airport (OAJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA01FA151
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 M-20J
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M-20
- 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
- N4780H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NCTo Albert J Ellis Airport (OAJ), Jacksonville, NC
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Tree(s); Stall/mush
- 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 › Altitude, improper
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had been airborne for about 15 minutes and while en route had informed FAA Charlotte departure control that he was having electrical problems, saying that he needed to "get down nearest airport no emergency yet.". The controller responded informing the pilot of an airport that was about 2 miles behind him, or the Monroe Airport, which was about 6 miles ahead, which had more services. At 1730:57, the pilot reported the airport in sight, and the controller cleared him for the visual approach, stating that that runway 23 was in use, and telling the pilot to descend at his own discretion. At 1732:05 pilot then acknowledged the controller's communications transmission saying, "roger two three," and that was the last radio communication between the controller and the pilot. At 1735:46, the crew of a Hawker corporate jet, N942DS, which was departing from Monroe Airport reported to FAA Air traffic Control that N4780H had just crashed, and that there was smoke and fire at the scene of the crash. Witnesses stated that they observed N4780H approach Monroe Airport from the northeast, and saw it turn to the left, beyond runway 23, about 200 yards from the end of the runway, in a left descending turn. After the initial left descending turn, the witnesses said the pilot made a right descending turn toward the runway as if to get on a left downwind approach for runway 23, and during the turn the airplane had descended below the treeline. The witnesses said that as the airplane approached the trees it assumed a nose high pitch attitude, and they heard a noise as the bottom of the airplane slapped the trees. After the airplane slapped the trees they said the pitch attitude was increased to a near vertical pitch attitude, and airplane then pitched over nose first, and descended almost straight down, disappearing below the trees. Postcrash examination of the airframe, flight controls, and engine did not reveal any evidence of preaccident failures or malfunctions.
Probable cause
The pilot in command’s failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering to avoid objects, resulting in a stall/mush and collision with the terrain during uncontrolled descent. Contributing to the accident was the improper approach to land and his failure to maintain the proper altitude on approach.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA01FA151
- Event ID
- 20010613X01164
- Case number
- MIA01FA151
- 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, coordinates. 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: 09372911b7ab072feb46cf456ef51e2d049902f8e12aa515c2c60dabce15bd49; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:31:10.647Z.