FTW04FA055 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Tradewind Airport (TDW) to 2F5 · Lamesa, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04FA055
- 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
- 1 · 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 M20C
- 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
- N6834N
- Operator
- Michael Stephens
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tradewind Airport (TDW), Amarillo, TXTo 2F5 · Lamesa, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after take off, the 1,142-hour pilot reported over the radio that he was having "chest pains" and wanted to return to the "ground." A witness observed the airplane as it headed south at an approximate altitude of 1,200 to 1,500 feet above ground level. He then saw the airplane make a descending, 180-degree right turn. The airplane continued to descend (approximately 150-200 feet per minute) until it disappeared from his view. The witness added that the engine was "loud" and operating at full power during the turn. The landing gear was up, and there were no "apparent difficulties" with the airplane. Examination of the airplane and engine revealed no mechanical deficiencies. A review of the pilot's personal medical records revealed that in the months preceding the accident the pilot had been found to have high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol, all of which are risk factors for coronary heart disease.
Probable cause
The pilot's incapacitation due to chest pains, resulting in a loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04FA055
- Event ID
- 20040106X00024
- Case number
- FTW04FA055
- 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: 3dc928891f70baa62195b259e16d2749e93ac5fdd3fdd42343d79b6808c4e50d; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:39:04.767Z.