WPR12FA044 · Mooney M20M
Mooney M20M · Accident during an uncontrolled descent
From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT) to Brackett Field (POC)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12FA044
- 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 M20M
- 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
- N741SB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, CATo Brackett Field (POC), Pomona, CA
- 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- Defining eventThe 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Pole
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After the pilot reported to the airport air traffic controller that the airplane was inbound, he was cleared to land. The controller informed the pilot of departing traffic from the runway, but the pilot did not respond. Another controller noted that the airplane was low and on the base leg of the traffic pattern at that time. The controller who was in contact with the pilot noted that the airplane was low and that it then turned "wing up" and crashed. The airplane collided with a 75-foot-tall stanchion, which was in a fairground about 3/4 mile southeast of the airport. The pilot made no mayday calls during the approach or accident sequence. Witnesses observed the airplane at a lower-than-normal altitude for landing. The traffic pattern altitude for the airport is 2,013 feet. At the time of the accident, an overcast layer was reported at 2,000 feet. It is likely that the pilot was maintaining a lower altitude to remain below the overcast layer in visual conditions and failed to maintain sufficient altitude to clear the obstruction while on the base leg of the traffic pattern. A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot did not possess a medical certificate because he had not responded to a request by the Federal Aviation Administration for additional details regarding his diabetes diagnosis. However, review of the pilot's autopsy and toxicology testing revealed no evidence of sudden incapacitation. Although postaccident testing revealed the presence of diphenhydramine, it could not be determined if it was impairing at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain sufficient altitude to clear obstructions while maneuvering on the base leg of the traffic pattern for landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12FA044
- Event ID
- 20111121X70533
- Case number
- WPR12FA044
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 1248889363059c4658169c94b508ef44411c2f39d4c8515a5e18c9c8c3b1910d; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:59:46.230Z.