ERA20FA019 · Mooney M20A
Mooney M20A · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Eastern WV Regional Airport/Shepherd Field (MRB) to Eastern WV Regional Airport/Shepherd Field (MRB)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA20FA019
- 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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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 M20A
- 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
- N8354E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern WV Regional Airport/Shepherd Field (MRB), Martinsburg, WVTo Eastern WV Regional Airport/Shepherd Field (MRB), Martinsburg, WV
- Aircraft age
- About 59 years (built 1960)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
As the airplane departed the airport, the pilot advised the tower controller that they were going to practice airwork in the local area. Radar data indicated that the airplane flew south-southwest for about 7 miles and initially climbed to about 1,900 ft above ground level (agl). After leveling off, the airplane descended to about 1,400 ft agl and slowed to a ground speed of about 60 knots. It then flew on a relatively constant heading and altitude for about 1 minute, as the ground speed gradually decreased to about 46 knots, consistent with performing a slow flight and/or a stall maneuver. It then turned right, descended to about 1,100 ft agl, and the groundspeed increased to 60 knots. The airplane then turned back to the left and resumed its original course. While remaining at 1,100 ft agl, the airplane again held a consistent course and altitude, as the groundspeed decreased from 60 knots to 45 knots over a 35-second period, again consistent with a slow flight and/or stall maneuver. The groundspeed then reduced to about 15 knots and the airplane descended. The groundspeed increased to about 70 knots before the recorded data ended about 500 ft agl.
Witnesses described seeing the airplane rocking back and forth as it flew in a constant direction before it turned right and descended out of view. The witnesses reported fluctuating engine noises before impact. Their observations were consistent with the pilot performing stalls and recoveries at a low altitude. Damage to the propeller and spinner were consistent with engine rotation at the time of impact, and there were no anomalies found with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. Given the increase in groundspeed at the end of the recorded tracking data, and the length of the debris field, which indicated that the airplane did not impact the ground in a fully-developed stall or spin, it is likely that the pilot had partially recovered from the stall, but inadequate altitude remained to arrest the airplane’s descent before impact with terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to conduct a practice stall maneuver at low altitude, which resulted in inadequate altitude remaining in which to recover before impacting terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA20FA019
- Event ID
- 20191024X80514
- Case number
- ERA20FA019
- 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: dbcf51157eddf2cb1ea00ec6a6310056d6798e55c98f192432dcab48535db8aa; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:07:29.812Z.