NYC08FA039 · Mooney M20K
Grab Air Mooney M20K · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Greater Binghamton/Edwin A Link field (BGM) to Albany International Airport (ALB)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08FA039
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Mooney M20K
- 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
- N252DD
- Operator
- Grab Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greater Binghamton/Edwin A Link field (BGM), Binghamton, NYTo Albany International Airport (ALB), Albany, NY
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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 › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
**Brief updated 1/5/2010**
After refueling, the instrument-rated pilot taxied to the end of runway 34, was issued a clearance to turn right on course, and was cleared for takeoff. The airplane leveled off over the runway, accelerated, and then climbed into an indefinite ceiling. After the takeoff, the pilot was issued a frequency change, which was acknowledged. However, the pilot was never heard to check in on the new frequency. The airplane was airborne for approximately 19 seconds and reached a peak altitude of 364 feet above field elevation. It impacted terrain approximately 3/4 of a mile northeast of the airport. The accident occurred during the hours of dusk. A weather observation taken about 6 minutes before the accident included a reported visibility of 1/4-mile in fog, and an indefinite ceiling at 100 feet above ground level. No evidence of any preimpact malfunctions of the airplane, engine, flight instruments, or autopilot were discovered. The circumstances of the accident and flight path of the airplane during the flight are consistent with spatial disoriention of the pilot.
Probable cause
The pilot's spatial disorientation, which resulted in a loss of control and subsequent collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08FA039
- Event ID
- 20071129X01870
- Case number
- NYC08FA039
- 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: 4b8d97648b9c573b5d8eb5fdbb87addcf97bab8af93af5eea41d0a79588fa8cb; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:06:29.472Z.