NTSB Factual Report

On August 2, 2018, about 1705 Pacific daylight time, a Mooney M20J, N56039, impacted terrain during an approach to land at Lopez Island Airport (S31), Lopez Island, Washington. The pilot and flight instructor were fatally injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was not filed for the local flight that departed Friday Harbor Airport (FHR), Friday Harbor, Washington about 1500.

According to the flight instructor's wife, the instructor was scheduled to perform a flight review of the accident pilot at 1400, but the flight was delayed until 1500.

According to an eyewitness, after his departure from runway 16 at FHR he began a climb. Approximately 1.2 nm south of the airport he heard another pilot announce over the radio that he was on an extended left base for runway 14 at S31, but sounded unsure or distracted. The eyewitness made a left turn to an eastern course and then observed an airplane about 300 ft and about 0.5 nm north of S31 that appeared to be initiating a base turn to the final approach leg of runway 16 at S31. The airplane's left turn progressed into a 45° bank that continued to increase until the airplane entered a nose down dive and about one complete revolution on its roll axis before the airplane disappeared from the eyewitness' line of sight.

Please refer to the wreckage diagram below for an illustration of the debris path. The airplane came to rest in wooded area about 400 ft from the western shore of Lopez Island. An initial impact point (IIP) was identified by an airframe fragment in the canopy of a tall tree. A tree scar that measured about 5 ft in diameter was observed about midspan (vertically) up a 100 foot tall brown tree with yellow moss. The main wreckage, which was comprised of the empennage, left wing, right wing root, fuselage and engine, was located a few feet forward of the scarred tree and oriented on a magnetic heading of 180°, but marked the end of the debris path. The orientation between the IIP and main wreckage was 126° magnetic and the distance between the two points was about 60 ft. The right wing had separated at the wing root and was found in the debris path a few feet to the right of the main wreckage, also near the scarred tree. The inboard top skin of the right wing displayed brown and yellow transfer signatures. Both propeller blades remained attached to the engine, which remained attached to the airplane.