WPR18FA210 · Mooney M20J

The private pilot and flight instructor were conducting a flight review in the pilot's airplane. A witness departing from a nearby airport heard the pilot of the accident airplane make a position report while in the traffic pattern, then saw the accident airplane about 300 ft above ground level initiating a left turn from the base to final leg of the traffic pattern for landing. The airplane started the left turn and its bank angle progressively steepened until the airplane entered a spin and disappeared behind trees.

The electric fuel boost pump was found inoperative; however, its condition suggested that it had been inoperative for an extended period of time before the accident flight. Further, the engine would run normally during landing using the engine-driven fuel pump. Therefore, the inoperative electric fuel boost pump did not contribute to the accident. Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any evidence of preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Surveillance video near the accident location captured audio of the airplane as it approached the runway; the audio was consistent with the engine operating during the landing approach and revealed a sudden increase in engine sound shortly before the impact.

The witness statement and impact signatures at the accident site were consistent with a cross control stall and spin and subsequent impact with trees as the pilot was likely attempting to correct his approach after overshooting the runway centerline during a base-to-final turn. The private pilot's rudder and aileron inputs were likely uncoordinated, which would have initiated the spin when one of the occupants added power at an altitude too low for recovery. While the flight instructor may have attempted to remediate the stall by adding power, his lack of oversight during the approach likely contributed to the stall entry.

A low concentration of ethanol was detected in the pilot's cardiac and cavity blood; however, there was no ethanol found in fluid that was less susceptible to postmortem production, thus it is reasonable that some or all of the identified ethanol was from sources other than ingestion and did not contribute to the accident. There was postmortem evidence of moderate to severe atherosclerotic disease in the right coronary artery of the pilot; however, as there was a second pilot onboard and given the accident circumstances, it is unlikely that the pilot's medical condition would have been a factor in this accident.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset