Mooney M20M Downed After Uncontrolled Descent From FL230

We've seen versions of this story before... an unresponsive GA single, aloft in the Flight Levels, stops answering comms, fighters are scrambled and nothing can be done until the aircraft runs out of fuel and crashes. Well, it seems to have happened again.

F-16 fighters under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted a small unresponsive aircraft near Muncie, IN. today at approximately 0930 MDT.

The civilian aircraft had departed Grand Rapids, Mich. on a post-maintenance flight and lost communications with ground air traffic controllers. Upon intercepting the aircraft, the F-16 pilots reported the pilot was unresponsive. F-16 fighters followed the aircraft until it crashed in a rural area of Randolph County, IN. near Winchester at approximately 1040 MDT.

Media reports ID the aircraft type as an M20M Mooney, registered to a Michigan LLC as N400DE, and that the aircraft had stopped answering queries after a climb to 23,000 feet. Pilots of the F-16s reported that the pilot was observed in the aircraft, 'slumped over' against the side of the cockpit and failed to respond to the attempts to rouse him.

NORAD's Michael Kucharek told the media that, "When the pilot became unresponsive to air traffic control somewhere around northeast Indiana, we launched fighter aircraft from NORAD, intercepted the aircraft, made sure the pilot was, in fact, behind the controls of the aircraft... He was, but unconscious, slumped over the wheel."

First responders and local law enforcement responded to the scene, but the pilot, the only one on board the aircraft, perished in the accident.

NORAD notes that "The intent of military intercepts is to identify aircraft, re-establish communications with local FAA air traffic controllers and instruct the pilot to follow air traffic controllers to land safely for further follow-on action."

Mooney M20M Bravo, N400DE

NORAD is the bi-national Canadian and American command 'that is responsible for the air defense of North America and maritime warning. The command has three subordinate regional headquarters: the Alaskan NORAD Region at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; the Canadian NORAD Region at Winnipeg, Manitoba; and the Continental NORAD Region at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. The command is poised both tactically and strategically in our nation’s capital to provide a multilayered defense to detect, deter and prevent potential threats flying over the airspace of the United States and Canada.'

FMI: www.norad.mil