LAX93LA089 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Petaluma Municipal Airport (O69) to San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA089
- 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
- N6790V
- Operator
- Daniel G. Olivier · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Petaluma Municipal Airport (O69), Petaluma, CATo San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, CA
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Pressure excessive
- Fuel system, carburetor float › Jammed
- Fuel system, carburetor › Contamination
- Fuel system, line fitting › Cross/stripped threaded
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS IN CRUISE FLIGHT AT ABOUT 9,500 FEET MEAN SEA LEVEL WHEN THE ENGINE HAD A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT ENTERED A POWER OFF FORCED LANDING AND PERFORMED EMERGENCY PROCEDURES ATTEMPTING TO RE START THE ENGINE. HE COULD NOT GET THE ENGINE STARTED. THE PILOT LANDED THE AIRPLANE ON A TWO LANE ROAD ADJACENT TO AN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY. THE PILOT ENCOUNTERED AN UNFAVORABLE LEFT CROSSWIND WHICH CAUSED THE AIRPLANE TO DRIFT TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD. DURING LANDING ROLL THE AIRPLANE'S RIGHT WING CONTACTED METAL FENCE POSTS AND SPUN THE AIRPLANE INTO AN EMBANKMENT. DURING AN FAA SUPERVISED ENGINE RUN FUEL WAS NOTED AS LEAKING FROM THE CARBURETOR. AN EXAMINATION OF THE CARBURETOR REVEALED THAT THE INLET FUEL FITTING HAD GALLED OR CROSSFED THREADS. METAL SHAVINGS FROM THE THREADS BYPASSED THE FUEL SCREEN AND TRAVELED DIRECTLY INTO THE FUEL FLOAT VALVE WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE FILTER SCREEN. THIS CAUSED THE FLOAT VALVE TO BECOME INOPERATIVE, WHICH RESULTED IN FLOODING THE ENGINE WITH FUEL CAUSING A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE HAD A TOTAL TIME OF 7 HOURS SINCE OVERHAUL.
Probable cause
1) THE CARBURETOR INLET FUEL LINE BEING IMPROPERLY INSTALLED BY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WHICH ALLOWED THE CARBURETOR TO BECOME CONTAMINATED WITH METAL PARTICLES, AND 2) THE CARBURETOR FLOAT VALVE BEING JAMMED BY METAL PARTICLES WHICH ALLOWED EXCESSIVE FUEL TO BE INTRODUCED INTO THE CARBURETOR RESULTING IN FLOODING AND THE TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT ENCOUNTERING AN UNFAVORABLE CROSSWIND DURING FINAL APPROACH WHICH LED TO THE AIRPLANE'S WING COLLIDING WITH FENCE POSTS DURING LANDING ROLL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA089
- Event ID
- 20001211X11713
- Case number
- LAX93LA089
- 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: 0357a5bdb00e777d81c9c8d5dd5f1b0695b6713fceb5e80cf4e932590ca5f1f4; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:03:44.971Z.