LAX00LA215 · Mooney M20J
Mooney M20J · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Carson Airport (CXP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA215
- 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 M20J
- 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
- N201CE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Carson Airport (CXP), Carson City, NVTo not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 (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
- Fuel system, nozzle › Contamination, other than water
- Fuel system, nozzle › Flow restricted
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane collided with the ground during an off airport forced landing after the airplane began losing altitude immediately after lift off. In the morning, the pilot had flown from another airport direct at 13,500 feet without experiencing any problems and intended to take 3 passengers up on a local flight. On the accident flight, he completed a full power run up and leaned to slightly rich of best power. His run up was normal, the engine was running smoothly, and he felt that it was developing full power. He had picked a go-no-go point that he estimated was about 2,000 feet down the runway. The airplane accelerated normally and lifted off well before his selected go-no-go point. The airplane attained expected climb speed, but a less than expected climb rate. All of the instruments seemed to be within normal ranges, but the airplane stopped climbing. The airplane was approaching the end of the runway and steadily losing altitude. The pilot set up for the off airport landing but saw a berm directly ahead. In order to avoid the obstruction, he aggressively pushed the yoke forward, and applied full right rudder. The left wing speared into the ground and the airplane cart wheeled. The spark plugs for cylinder no. 2 were lighter in color than the others. Investigators observed an unidentified particle obstructing the cylinder no. 2 fuel injection nozzle, and water in the fuel flow divider. The flow divider diaphragm was intact and undamaged. The engine driven fuel pump's internal cavities displayed areas of corrosion. The valve bodies had areas of rust where material was missing. Sediment was resting on the compensator diaphragm. The gascolator was clean. The fuel servo fuel inlet screen was not contaminated. Examination of the fuel injector servo revealed internal corrosion, and contamination by a large piece of black contamination on the unmetered side of the diaphragm. The servo flowed satisfactorily during the bench test, but was somewhat rich. A review of the airplane's logbooks revealed an overhaul of the injection system at the same time of an engine overhaul in November 1998. A logbook entry dated January 17, 2000, noted an ultrasonic cleaning of the fuel nozzles. The density altitude was computed to be 7,680 feet.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power due to contamination of the fuel system resulting in partial blockage of the cylinder number 2 fuel injection nozzle. A factor in the accident was the high density altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA215
- Event ID
- 20001212X21257
- Case number
- LAX00LA215
- 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, coordinates. 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: 7d7ef5de0c6d43eeb786a2a0f4f6b8ecb1fbe861f81b360e2a3aad2270d38256; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:38:35.130Z.