A Mooney M20J with two aboard, flown by a 300-hour private pilot, began its takeoff roll on Runway 19 at Kansas City Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC) at intersection Kilo, with 5,313 feet of runway remaining. The pilot retracted the landing gear immediately after liftoff and began a climb, whereupon the engine lost power. The pilot declared an emergency as the airplane settled to an estimated 10 feet above the surface with the gear still retracted. The engine then returned to life; the pilot told the tower “I’m OK,” and he resumed climbing. Twenty seconds later, when the airplane was at an estimated 300 to 400 feet above the end of the runway, the pilot radioed, “We do have a problem.” The local controller, who had no way to know that the engine had quit, cleared the pilot to land on Runway 21.
The airplane stalled out of a gliding right turn and crashed in a field a quarter-mile southwest of the departure end of the runway. Both occupants died.
