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Plane CrashesVersion 2

One Dead in Mooney M20J Crash Near Woodlake, California

The accident record lists one person aboard and one fatality; the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating and the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 9:27 a.m. ET
One person was killed when a was destroyed near Woodlake, California, on May 23, 2026, at about 5:34 p.m. local time, according to the accident record. The record lists one person on board and one fatality. This is a developing matter and details may change. The accident record identifies the aircraft as a , registration , and classifies the flight as a Part 91 general aviation flight. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. The cause has not been determined. Aircraft registry records list as a single-engine piston landplane with a Lycoming I0360-series engine, serial number 24-0738, built in 1978 and 48 years old at the time of the crash. The registry lists the registered owner as Rompel John T; the owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight. Geographic reference data places Woodlake in Tulare County, California, at a settlement elevation of 443 feet — not the elevation of the accident site — and 1.1 miles NNE of Woodlake Airport (KO42), 12 miles NNE of Exeter Airport (O63) and 12 miles east of Sequoia Field (KD86). Weather observations recorded at Visalia Municipal Airport (KVIS), 17.6 miles away and 22 minutes from the reported time of the accident, show wind from 310 degrees at 12 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, clear skies and a temperature of 92°F. The observation is an instrument reading at a nearby field and is not a statement about what happened. As a matter of record, the NTSB database, which begins in 2008, contains 99 other cases involving the , of which 31 involved a fatality. That count is not a safety rate and says nothing about the cause of this accident.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Registration
N4452H
Type
Mooney M20J — single-engine piston landplane
Engines
LYCOMING I0360 SER
Built
1978-01-01 (48 years old)
Registered owner
Rompel John TThe owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight.
Terrain elevation
443 ft
Nearest aerodrome
1.1 miles NNE of Woodlake Airport (KO42)

Sources

No sources recorded.

Revision history

  1. Version 27 Aug 2026, 13:27current

    Corrected the location description to match the geographic reference data (Woodlake is 1.1 miles NNE of Woodlake Airport, 12 miles NNE of Exeter Airport and 12 miles east of Sequoia Field) and clarified that the 443-foot elevation is that of the settlement, not the accident site.

  2. Version 15 Aug 2026, 15:51

    First published.

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