ATL02FA171 · Mooney M20R
Mooney M20R · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) to 2NCO · Burnsville, NC
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL02FA171
- 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
- 2 · 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 M20R
- 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
- N574DJ
- Operator
- Carol G. Peddy · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NCTo 2NCO · Burnsville, 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was on an approach to the 2875-foot mountaintop runway in gusting winds, the airplane was observed to bank sharply left and drop down the mountainside just prior to reaching the runway 14 threshold. The airplane then collided with trees and terrain and burst into flames. Several witnesses outside on the decks of a country club and a restaurant adjacent to the mountaintop runway observed the airplane make a low pass down runway 14, then enter the traffic pattern. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane on a low, flat final approach to runway 14 with its gear and flaps down. One witness stated the airplane appeared as if it was going to land directly on the numbers, but just prior to reaching the end of the runway, it suddenly banked left and dropped down the mountainside out of view. The published airport information card stated, "Runway 32 has an uphill incline of 46 feet. Runway 14, thus, downhill 46 feet. Recommended approach unless there is significant tailwind is runway 32." The card also stated, "High banks on right hand side of approach ends of both runway 14 and 32, within 20 feet of edge of pavement .... Mountainous terrain in area. Caution: Mountain turbulence, approach downdrafts, density altitude." Examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunction or failure. The pilot had reported turbulence prior to conducting the approach.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during final approach, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and uncontrolled descent into trees and terrain. Factors were wind gusts and terrain-induced turbulence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL02FA171
- Event ID
- 20020925X05210
- Case number
- ATL02FA171
- 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: 51c81e6157752c30f9f6945485321acbf7c5fdf75d61b65369a6c95cae55c3b5; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:48:01.022Z.