ERA25FA230 · Mooney M20F

On June 19, 2025, at 0846 eastern daylight time, N95735, a Mooney M20F, was involved in an accident near Beverly, Massachusetts. The commercial pilot and the passenger were fatally injured. The flight was conducted as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. A preliminary review of air traffic control communications and airport security camera video revealed the airplane departed runway 16 at the Beverly Municipal Airport (BVY), Beverly, Massachusetts, at 0846. Shortly after the airplane became airborne, the engine began to backfire and brown smoke was observed trailing under the belly of the airplane. The pilot made a garbled call over the airport’s air traffic control tower frequency, and a controller cleared the pilot to land on any runway. The airplane initially made a right bank toward runway 27, before it banked left and descended from view behind trees. The engine continued to run rough, but engine RPM could still be heard as the airplane disappeared from view. The last radar return received on the airplane was at 0846:55. At that time, the airplane was 217 ft mean sea level (110 ft above ground level (agl)), at a ground speed of 65 knots on an easterly heading. A witness, who was a flight instructor at BVY, watched the airplane depart. He said there was a “significant reduction in power” when the plane was 150 ft agl and approximately halfway down the 5,001-ft-long runway. He said, “A few seconds later it seemed as though the plane got power back partially. The pilot initiated a left turn to the east (in what appeared to be an attempt to turn around or land on the intersecting runway 9). While turning it sounded as though there was another significant reduction in power. The plane began to descend with its wings level eventually falling in what appeared to be a stalled state behind the tree line to the crash site. In my estimation, the plane never appeared to get higher than 200’ agl.” The airplane impacted a grass berm adjacent to a two-lane road with the left wing, then crossed the road and impacted a light pole where it came to rest perpendicular to the road. There was no postimpact fire. The airplane wreckage was recovered and taken to a secure facility for further examination.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset