LAX94LA202 · Mooney M20-C
Mooney M20-C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From U42 · Salt Lake City, UT to Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA202
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Mooney M20-C
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M20
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N6524U
- Operator
- John M. Dawson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From U42 · Salt Lake City, UTTo Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG), Flagstaff, AZ
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel exhaustion
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Copilot/second pilot › Fuel management, inadequate
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE OWNER WAS CONDUCTING A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT ACCOMPANIED BY A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR FOR AN AIRPLANE CHECK-OUT. ABOUT 3 HRS AFTER DEPARTURE, THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM FAILED, AND THE PILOTS DIVERTED TO PAGE. ABOUT 40 MIN LATER, THE FLIGHT ARRIVED OVER THE AIRPORT AND DESCENDED TO ENTER A DOWNWIND LANDING PATTERN. WHEN POWER WAS ADDED, THE PILOTS DISCOVERED THAT THE ENGINE HAD QUIT. EMERGENCY PROCEDURES FAILED TO RESTART THE ENGINE. THE FUEL SELECTOR HAD BEEN POSITIONED ON THE RIGHT FUEL TANK DURING THE DESCENT. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR TOOK OVER THE CONTROLS, AND THE AIRPLANE LANDED SHORT OF A CROSSWIND RUNWAY IN SOFT TERRAIN. A POSTCRASH INSPECTION BY THE AIRPORT MANAGER REVEALED ONLY RESIDUAL FUEL IN THE RIGHT FUEL TANK, AND 1-1/2 INCHES OF FUEL IN THE LEFT TANK WITH THE WINGS TIPPED DOWNWARD TOWARD THE RIGHT WING. THE AIRPLANE'S GENERATOR HAD FAILED.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOTS TO ASSURE THAT AMPLE FUEL WOULD BE AVAILABLE TO REACH THE AIRPORT. THE GENERATOR FAILURE AND AN INOPERATIVE FUEL QUANTITY GAGE WERE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA202
- Event ID
- 20001206X01142
- Case number
- LAX94LA202
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 90a50123941c6e56e8f9757c1a1d856c7ae6b723752e9c523e9e67e9fcfde5eb; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:39:49.471Z.