Mooney M20J N526AM

Summary

On 25 September 2016 at about 16:30 local time, a Mooney M20J registered N526AM, operated by Air Mods Flight Training Center, Inc., was involved in an accident near Pittstown, New Jersey, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

25 September 2016 at 16:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Pittstown, New Jersey, United States

Nearest airport

Sky Manor (N40)

Coordinates

40.5594, -74.9906

Aircraft

Mooney M20J

Registration

N526AM

Category

Airplane

Year built

1980

Engines

1

Operator

Air Mods Flight Training Center, Inc.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Perkasie → Pittstown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA16FA325

2 people died.

The pilot's improper landing touchdown attitude, which resulted in a propeller strike, and his inappropriate decision to abort the landing after the propeller had contacted the runway, which resulted in a loss of thrust and led to an aerodynamic stall during climb. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's lack of recent experience in the accident airplane make and model.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot rented the airplane for a personal flight, flew to another airport, and picked up the passenger. The pilot and the passenger then flew to the airport where the accident occurred. During the first landing attempt, the airplane appeared to be traveling too fast on the final approach. During the touchdown, the airplane bounced, and the pilot aborted the landing, climbed out, and joined the traffic pattern. During the second landing attempt, the airplane was again fast on the approach, and it touched down about halfway down the runway on the nose wheel, then touched down on the main landing gear, bounced, and became airborne. The airplane bounced twice more, then touched down about 400 to 500 ft before the end of the runway and stayed on the runway surface. As the airplane approached the end of the pavement, witnesses heard the engine power increase as the pilot aborted the landing, and the airplane began to climb. According to some witnesses, the engine was not producing full power. As it approached a row of trees off the end of the runway, the airplane appeared to climb steeply, cleared the row of trees, and then abruptly banked steeply to the left, pitched nose down, and descended in a steep, nose-down attitude to ground impact. Postaccident examination of the runway revealed propeller strike marks and a nosewheel tire mark about 1,747 ft from the threshold of the 2,900-ft-long runway, indicating that the pilot touched down past midfield in an improper nose-low attitude. Examination of the propeller revealed chordwise transfer marks and tip curling and polishing indicative of a propeller strike, which would have degraded the efficiency of the propeller and resulted in a loss of thrust during climb. The loss of control observed by the witnesses was consistent with the pilot attempting to climb even with the loss of thrust due to the damaged propeller, and exceeding the airplane's critical angle of attack, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Security camera video recordings and wind information from a nearby airport indicated that a slight tailwind existed for landing on the chosen runway, which would have slightly increased the airplane's ground speed and ground roll during the landing. However, according to the airplane's pilot operating handbook, the landing ground roll under worse case conditions (maximum gross weight and an outside air temperature of 40°C) would have been about 956 to 1,118 ft; therefore, the runway length was adequate for a safe landing if the proper touchdown point had been achieved. Although the pilot had 36 hours of flight experience in the accident airplane make and model, his most recent flight in this make and model was 10 months before the accident. Further, his most recent flight before the accident flight was in an airplane of lesser performance equipped with fixed landing gear and a fixed pitch propeller, and was about 8 months before the accident.  According to his logbook, he did not meet the Federal Aviation Administration recent experience requirements to act as a pilot in command of an airplane carrying passengers.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.