LAX92FA141 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) to Renton Municipal Airport (RNT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA141
- 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 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
- N7850V
- Operator
- Brown, Stephen F. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK), Oakland, CATo Renton Municipal Airport (RNT), Renton, WA
- 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 · climb to 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Induction air control, air filter/screen › Blocked(total)
- Induction air control, air filter/screen › Ice
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, attempted
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE TWO INSTRUMENT RATED PILOTS DEPARTED FOR A NIGHT IFR CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT INTO FORCAST ICING CONDITIONS IN A CARBURATED MOONEY M20C. THE PILOTS RECEIVED THREE WEATHER BRIEFINGS IN WHICH THEY WERE ADVISED OF LIGHT TO MODERATE MIXED ICING CONDITIONS FROM THE 6,000 FOOT FREEZING LEVEL TO 18,000. THE OWNER PILOT IN THE RIGHT SEAT HELD A COMMERCIAL AND INSTRUCTORS CERTIFICATE FOR SINGLE ENGINE LAND AIRPLANES. THE LEFT SEAT PILOT HELD A PRIVATE PILOTS CERTIFICATE FOR SINGLE ENGINE LAND. THEY WERE CRUISING AT 12,000 FEET. THEY REPORTED EXPERIENCING LIGHT RIME ICING CONDITIONS IN A RADIO EXCHANGE TO FSS. THE PILOT REQUESTED A CLIMB TO 14,000 FEET, AND, DURING THE CLIMB, REQUESTED A DESCENT BACK TO 12,000 FEET. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, HE STATED THAT HE HAD ENGINE PROBLEMS AND REQUESTED VECTORS TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT. THE FLIGHT WAS GIVEN RADAR VECTORS TOWARD THE TWO AIRPORTS IN REDDING. TEN MINUTES INTO THE EMERGENCY DESCENT THE PILOT STATED THAT THEY WERE STILL IMC BUT 'THE ICINGS MELTED OFF.' DURING THE DESCENT THEY STATED THAT THEY HAD NO ENGINE POWER. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH POWER LINES ABOUT 1.6 MILES FROM THE BENTON REDDING AIRPORT. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT APPROVED FOR FLIGHT IN KNOWN ICING CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO CARBURETOR AND AIR FILTER ICING, AND, THE PILOTS DECISION TO ATTEMPT FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER/ICING CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA141
- Event ID
- 20001211X14308
- Case number
- LAX92FA141
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-03-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4618202231d8ffde614a295dad7837c5695317ccf3d60fe97bb820e196bb5902; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:18:57.354Z.