ERA15CA157 · Mooney Aircraft CORP. M20K
Mooney Aircraft CORP. M20K · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN) to W18 · Laurel, MD
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15CA157
- 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
- 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 Aircraft CORP. 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
- N231KA
- Operator
- Pridgen Michael e
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN), Easton, MDTo W18 · Laurel, MD
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1978)
- 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
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he was aware that the Low Intensity Runway Lights (LIRL) at his departure airport were not operational when he departed on a local flight. When the pilot returned to the departure airport later that night, he attempted to operate the LIRL, but only one side of the runway edge lights activated. The pilot conducted a low approach to see which lights were working and then executed a go-around. On the second approach, the pilot planned to conduct another low approach to see if he could identify the runway paint markings. If the pilot saw the paint markings, he planned to continue the low approach into a landing. During the second low approach, the airplane collided with a structure that was used as a precision approach path indicator. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings. The pilot did not report any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. A review of the airport facility directory revealed that the LIRL lights were listed as inoperative indefinitely but also listed to activate LIRL with common traffic advisory frequency.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to attempt a nighttime landing at an unsuitable airport, which resulted in a collision with the precision approach path indicator.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15CA157
- Event ID
- 20150317X41847
- Case number
- ERA15CA157
- 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. 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: 27cfa1f530d0f836e7d853c018d6abc4cf92b7f2294314c5001e486a856d4f65; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:09:31.799Z.