Mooney M20F N891X

Summary

On 23 February 2011 at about 16:00 local time, a Mooney M20F registered N891X was involved in an accident near Nephi, Utah, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

23 February 2011 at 16:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Nephi, Utah, United States

Nearest airport

Nephi Municipal Airport (U14)

Coordinates

39.7364, -111.8700

Aircraft

Mooney M20F

Registration

N891X

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Mesquite → Nephi

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR11LA143

Nobody was injured.

The failure of the nose gear during landing for reasons that could not be determined due to postaccident damage.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

Before the accident flight, the pilot diverted to an alternate airport due to inclement weather. While landing, the pilot felt a shimmy in the landing gear but reported that the landing was otherwise normal. The pilot did not inspect the landing gear. On the accident flight, the pilot flew to his intended airport and decided to conduct a soft-field landing; he lowered the nose landing gear after the main landing gear touched down. Upon contact with the runway, the nose landing gear began to shimmy. The airplane veered to the left of the runway and the pilot attempted to return it to runway centerline. The nose landing gear then collapsed, and the airplane continued off the runway and into a snow bank, where the nose gear was sheared off. The pilot reported that when he purchased the airplane the year before, he had felt a similar shimmy in the landing gear. He further stated that 2 weeks before the accident, the airplane had gone through an annual inspection during which the landing gear actuator had been sent out for overhaul. The pilot had flown the airplane about 10 hours since the inspection. The cause of the nose gear failure was not determined because postaccident examination could not determine if the damage occurred before the impact with the snow bank or during the accident sequence.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.