ERA26FA178 · Mooney M20J

On April 17, 2026, about 1414 eastern daylight time, a Mooney M20J, N205MK, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Ironton, Ohio. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.

Airport security video captured a portion of the takeoff roll from runway 28 at Ashland Regional Airport (DWU), Ashland, Kentucky, followed by rotation about 3,218 ft before the departure end of the runway. A pilot-rated witness who was sitting on a bench outside the door of a fixed-base operator reported that after the airplane rotated it flew in ground effect with the landing gear retracted. He added that the airplane was, “not really climbing”, which he thought was odd, but the flight “did climb some” when it reached the departure end of the runway, but not as much as he expected. He then lost sight of the airplane.

After takeoff, the flight proceeded in a westerly direction flying over the Ohio River. A security camera installed at a business on the north side of the Ohio river about 2 nautical miles from the departure end of runway 28, or about .3 nautical mile east of electrical powerlines that spanned the Ohio river captured the airplane flying for about 5 seconds at a low altitude with the landing gear retracted.

DWU Virtower ADS-B data revealed that the airplane was flying at an altitude of about 600 ft mean sea level (msl), 130 knots ground speed, and descending at 300 ft per minute, immediately before the location of electrical transmission lines that crossed the Ohio River. Immediately after the electrical transmission lines, or at 1413:32, the airplane was flying at an altitude of about 700 ft msl, 110 knots ground speed, and climbing at 3,200 ft per minute.

Further review of the Virtower ADS-B data revealed that after passing the electrical transmission lines, the airplane changed heading to the right, slowed initially and descended slightly, then proceeded in a northwesterly direction with the airplane’s ground speed gradually decreasing while maintaining altitude. The last data point at 1414:03, showed the airplane at an altitude of 500 ft msl, 70 knots ground speed and descending at a rate of 700 ft per minute.

One witness near the accident site reported seeing the airplane pitch up before impacting an open field behind houses. Another witness reported hearing a loud engine noise, followed by the sounds of impact and a subsequent fireball and explosion. The initial ground contact was located about 450 ft from the last Virtower ADS-B target.

The wreckage came to rest upright near a tree line, about 3 nautical miles from the departure end of runway 28 at DWU. The cockpit, cabin, and inboard sections of both wings exhibited extensive postcrash fire damage. Further examination of the wreckage revealed the upper section of the vertical stabilizer and the upper portion of the rudder from the middle hinge up including the rudder counterweight were separated and not recovered.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset