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ERA24LA366 · Mooney M20K

30 Aug 2024 · Fairmont, WV, United States

Mooney M20K · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) during landing

From De Kalb County Airport (GWB) to Stafford Regional Airport (RMN)

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Event

NTSB case
ERA24LA366
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
Event fatalities
Unknown
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 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
N1005U
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From De Kalb County Airport (GWB), Auburn, INTo Stafford Regional Airport (RMN), Stafford, VA
Aircraft age
About 35 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 · aborted after touchdown
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 with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
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
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot stated that while en route to his destination he diverted to an alternate airport due to low cloud cover. After reviewing the runway length at the diversion airport, he overflew it then entered the airport traffic pattern for landing. He turned onto the base and final legs of the airport traffic pattern, and while on final approach, he recognized the airplane was fast but continued the approach. He reported that the airplane touched down too far down the runway, with a witness indicating that the airplane touched down past the last crossing taxiway, which resulted in about 836 ft of runway remaining. After touchdown the pilot stated that he applied the airplane’s brakes momentarily, but in that instant, he knew he was fast and added power to abort the landing. The engine responded and he fully retracted the flaps. During the subsequent climb out, the airplane impacted trees and then the ground. The airplane’s fuselage and left wing were substantially damaged. The pilot stated that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to attain the proper touchdown point, and his delay in aborting the landing.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA24LA366
Event ID
20240904195058
Case number
ERA24LA366
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: 65cf1fad77d9917a481d5908a61e0f4679f7607a58ed3a215fc71de4054a8e00; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:14:02.633Z.