BFO94LA022 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 34J · NEW SMYRNA BCH., FL to Butler Farm Show Airport (3G9)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA022
- 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
- N1377W
- Operator
- William Klima
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 34J · NEW SMYRNA BCH., FLTo Butler Farm Show Airport (3G9), BUTLER FARM, PA
- 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)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS TOPPED OFF WITH FUEL AND WAS FLOWN FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES BY THE ACCIDENT PILOT. THE PILOT THEN DEPARTED ON A CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT TO A DESTINATION LOCATED 709 NAUTICAL MILES AWAY, WITH NO PLANNED FUEL STOPS. ABOUT 5.5 HOURS INTO THE FLIGHT, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND THE PILOT EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING ABOUT 652 NAUTICAL MILES FROM THE DEPARTURE POINT. THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER AND RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL WAS FOUND ON BOARD THE AIRPLANE OR AT THE ACCIDENT SITE. ACCORDING TO THE AIRPLANE'S FLIGHT MANUAL, PERFORMANCE SECTION, THE ENDURANCE OF THE AIRPLANE IS 5.2 HOURS WITH FULL FUEL, 75 PERCENT POWER, AND 2,500 FEET MSL. NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WERE REPORTED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT AND INFLIGHT PREPARATIONS, PLANNING AND DECISIONS. THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA022
- Event ID
- 20001211X13710
- Case number
- BFO94LA022
- 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: ecee95b825c33fa18800e1d0c0c66bda27d9dfbffbe86efa06e5f93a6ea753a1; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:44:58.828Z.