CEN19FA139 · Mooney M20J
Mooney M20J · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Moose Lake Carlton County Airport (KMZH) to Crystal Airport (KMIC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19FA139
- 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 M20J
- 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
- N111JP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Moose Lake Carlton County Airport (KMZH), Moose Lake, MNTo Crystal Airport (KMIC), Minneapolis, MN
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument rated private pilot departed into a snowstorm at the time of the accident. The pilot had just received a weather briefing and an instrument flight rules clearance. One witness heard the airplane take off from the non-towered airport toward the north and turn west before the sound of the engine stopped abruptly. A search was initiated after the pilot did not contact air traffic control. The airplane was found partially submerged in a river the next morning.
Weather observations around the time of the accident depicted gusty wind out of the north, low clouds, and light snow. Several witnesses in the area reported large snowflakes and an accumulation of 1.5 to 2 inches within an hour. The airplane was parked outside on the day of the accident. A witness at the airport was unaware of any tools that the pilot had access to clear snow or ice from the airplane before the flight. Investigators were unable to determine how much snow may have accumulated on the airplane before the flight or if the pilot removed any wing contamination before he took off.
The airplane came to rest near the west bank of the river in about 2 to 4 ft of water. The engine and propeller were imbedded in the mud and silt on the bank of the river and the tail was extended into the air. Signatures on the leading edge of both wings and at the fuselage were consistent with a nose low, wings level attitude at the time of impact. An examination of the airframe, engine, and related systems revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operations.
From the toxicology results, it appears that the pilot had taken the prescription medication clonazepam. The concentration of clonazepam in cavity blood was below therapeutic levels. The inactive metabolite, 7-amino-clonazepam was also detected at low concentrations, suggesting the use of the medication occurred several days prior to the accident. Thus, it is unlikely that the pilot’s use of clonazepam was a factor in the accident.
Based upon the statement from the witness, the prevailing wind at the time of the accident, and the location of the wreckage, the pilot likely departed from the north/south runway. It is most likely that the pilot lost control of the airplane after entering the snowstorm. The reason for the loss of control could not be determined with the available information.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane after departing into a snowstorm.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19FA139
- Event ID
- 20190509X05207
- Case number
- CEN19FA139
- 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, cause areas. 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: b44094636524a264c0cbf310df72cc057e7b3129470ed99447924a449f1218e5; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:57:48.992Z.