FTW82FRG28 · Mooney M20A
Mooney M20A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From VANDERPOOL, TX to Sidney - Richland Regional Airport (SDY)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FRG28
- 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 M20A
- 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
- N7836C
- Operator
- Charles W. Kern · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From VANDERPOOL, TXTo Sidney - Richland Regional Airport (SDY), Sidney, MT
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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 terrain/water
- 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); Utility pole
- 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 › Gear extension, not obtained
- Pilot in command › Go-around, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING ARRIVAL, THE PILOT ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN FOR A LANDING ON RUNWAY 30 WITH A 7 KNOT TAILWIND. ON FINAL APPROACH, HE WAS NOT SATISFIED WITH HIS PATTERN AND ELECTED TO GO-AROUND. DURING THE GO-AROUND AND CLIMB, A MAP AND CHECKLIST FELL INTO THE RECESS BETWEEN THE SEATS AND INTERFERED WITH THE GEAR HANDLE. THE PILOT CONTINUED IN THE PATTERN WHILE REMOVING THE ARTICLES. HE THOUGHT THAT HE HAD LOWERED THE GEAR PRIOR TO THE NEXT LANDING. HOWEVER, WITNESSES REPORTED THAT ON THE SECOND APPROACH, THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN WITH THE GEAR UP. THE PILOT INITIATED ANOTHER GO-AROUND AND PULLED UP TO CLEAR OBSTACLES BEYOND THE END OF THE RUNWAY. HOWEVER, THE LEFT WING OF THE AIRCRAFT HIT TREES AND A HOUSE TOP. THE AIRCRAFT THEN STRUCK A TELEPHONE POLE AS IT CRASHED. A NUMBER OF PROPELLER SLASH MARKS AND A FOUR INCH WIND SCRAPE MARK WERE FOUND ABOUT 500 TO 700 FT DOWN THE 1800 FT RUNWAY. IN THIS AIRCRAFT, THE GEAR IS EXTENDED BY RAISING THE GEAR HANDLE AND RETRACTED BY LOWERING THE HANDLE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FRG28
- Event ID
- 20020917X03495
- Case number
- FTW82FRG28
- 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: d68823d7bb59941c7aa6fa8edcfaa43b0c97cef9b634d51b0155c2d74a084cd6; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:16:12.470Z.