CHI95LA057

During a cross country flight the pilot became disoriented and sought help in finding a landing site before the airplane suffered fuel exhaustion. After being guided to an airport the pilot elected to land on runway 17. He stated that while landing the wind was 230 degrees at 30 knots with gusts to 40 knots. He said he was unable to correct for the crosswind on landing and the airplane exited the runway into a corn field.

On December 11, 1994, at 1651 central standard time, a Mooney M20J, N4023H, registered to Herb Porter of Speedway, Indiana, impacted the terrain during a landing on runway 17 (5,000 x 72' dry/asphalt) at Scott City Municipal airport, Scott City, Kansas. The airplane sustained substantial damage. The pilot received serious injuries. The personal 14 CFR Part 91 flight was operating in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan was on file. The flight departed Indianapolis, Indiana, at 1105 central standard time, with the intended destination of Liberal, Kansas.

The pilot said that he had intended to use LORAN navigation to reach his destination; however, the airplane encountered an area of unreliable LORAN signals. He became disoriented and requested help from the Federal Aviation Administration, Air Route Traffic Control Center, located in Denver, Colorado, in locating an airport before the airplane suffered fuel exhaustion. He was guided to Scott City, Kansas, by a military airplane. He stated that the wind on landing was 230 degrees at 30 knots with gusts to 40. He said that during the landing he was unable to correct for the crosswind. After touchdown on the runway, the airplane exited the runway and impacted the terrain in a corn field, adjacent to the airport.

The nearest weather reporting station to the accident was Garden City, Kansas. They were reporting winds of 160 degrees at 22 knots with gusts to 29, at the time of the accident. This reporting station is located 35 nautical miles to the southeast of the accident site.