NYC94FA082 · Mooney M20K
Mooney M20K · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK) to Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94FA082
- 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
- 2 · 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 M20K
- 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
- N1007A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK), Atlanta, GATo Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET), Detroit, MI
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS ON AN IFR FLIGHT PLAN DESCENDING THROUGH 10,400 FEET, WHEN THE PLT REPORTED A VIBRATION AND ROUGH RUNNING ENGINE. ATC PROVIDED RADAR VECTORS TO AN AIRPORT 15 MILES AWAY. THE PLT STATED THAT HE ELIMINATED THE VIB BY FEATHERING THE PROP. WHEN THE ACFT WAS ABOUT 3 1/2 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT, THE PLT REPORTED THE FIELD INSIGHT. THE ACFT STRUCK TREES AND IMPACTED THE GROUND ABOUT 3/4 OF A MILE FROM THE RUNWAY. THE #6 CYL HEAD BARREL WAS FOUND CRACKED APPROX 80% AROUND. THE ACFT WAS EQUIPPED WITH SEVERAL STCS WHICH INCLUDED A HORSEPOWER INCREASE OF 50%, A FULL FEATHERING PROP, AN INCREASED GROSS WT OF 117 LBS, SPEEDBRAKES AND LONG RANGE FUEL TANKS. THE ACFT WAS 500 LBS OVER GROSS AT TAKEOFF, AND WAS 342 LBS OVER THE MAXIMUM FOR LANDING, AT THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE RECOMMENDED ENGINE OUT AIRSPEED WAS 87 KNOTS. THE CALIBRATED AIRSPEED DURING THE DESCENT WAS CALCULATED AT 147 KNOTS. AT MAX GROSS WT AND 87 KNOTS, THE ACFT HAD A GLIDING DISTANCE OF 22 MI FROM 10,000 FEET. SEVERAL LONG FARM FIELDS EXISTED LEFT AND RIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE'S DESCENT PATH.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF AN ENGINE CYLINDER WHICH RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ESTABLISH THE PROPER DESCENT PATH TO AN AIRPORT THAT WAS WITHIN THE GLIDE DISTANCE OF THE AIRPLANE. A FACTOR WAS THE OVERGROSS WEIGHT CONDITION OF THE AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94FA082
- Event ID
- 20001206X01365
- Case number
- NYC94FA082
- 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: 6a68b8ec0e4dbbfbb3eea43c4df3e65f5cbb6a90233f9a0e4c49b3aa0ffac81e; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:09:38.302Z.