NYC97LA128 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Williamsport Regional Airport (IPT) to Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC97LA128
- 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 M20C
- 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
- N6756N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Williamsport Regional Airport (IPT), Williamsport, PATo Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA), Fort Wayne, IN
- 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 · cruise
- 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)
- 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Failure
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was in cruise flight at 4,000 feet when he heard a 'pop', experienced a loss of engine power, and encountered smoke in the cockpit. The pilot was in contact with ATC and received vectors for landing at the nearest airport. During the descent, the oil pressure went to 'zero', and the engine stopped producing power. The pilot's vision was obscured out the windscreen and he felt unable to complete a landing to the airport. He selected an open hay field through a side window and performed a forced landing. A fire in the engine compartment was extinguished after landing. Examination of the engine revealed a hole in the engine crankcase below the number one cylinder. Further examination revealed failure of the connecting rods on the number one and number two cylinders.
Probable cause
the total loss of engine power due to failed connecting rods.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC97LA128
- Event ID
- 20001208X08232
- Case number
- NYC97LA128
- 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: fed5182cdb7c24d5f5c52a1dc2a1287ab27c68ebc2adce3b734db2e540033b81; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:24:39.532Z.