ERA20LA038 · Mooney M20M
Mooney M20M · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Morris Municipal Airport James R. Washburn field (C09) to College Park Airport (CGS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA20LA038
- 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 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
- N1031M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Morris Municipal Airport James R. Washburn field (C09), Morris, ILTo College Park Airport (CGS), College Park, MD
- Aircraft age
- About 30 years (built 1989)
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
During approach in light and variable wind conditions, the airplane cleared the trees at the approach end of the runway and descended to the touchdown point, where it bounced upon landing. The pilot then aborted the landing by applying full engine power and remaining in ground effect; however, he did not retract the landing gear because he saw no indication of climb and did not engage the flap switch over concern that the flaps would retract past the takeoff setting and reduce lift. The pilot’s failure to retract the flaps to the takeoff setting likely resulted in reduced airplane climb performance. After a few seconds in ground effect without the airplane climbing, the pilot realized that limited runway remained, so he landed to the left of the runway and the left wing impacted a perimeter fence.
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper flare, which resulted in a bounced landing, his improper airplane configuration during the attempted go-around, which resulted in the airplane not climbing, and his subsequent landing off the side of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA20LA038
- Event ID
- 20191118X94020
- Case number
- ERA20LA038
- 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: e6aaf107da2609323db66321990551a793133577e46ab872ed9664636fad4ef2; retrieved 2026-09-16T10:38:42.578Z.