LAX90LA284 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT) to Yuba County Airport (MYV)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA284
- 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
- N9236M
- Operator
- Gifford, Kevin H. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), FRESN0, CATo Yuba County Airport (MYV), Marysville, 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 (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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine assembly › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT HAD DEPARTED ANOTHER APRT EARLIER THE SAME DAY. THE PLT NOTICED THE ENG OIL PRESS WAS LOW. THE PLT DIVERTED FROM HIS DESTINATION TO ANOTHER APRT. WHILE ENROUTE, THE ENG OIL PRESS GAUGE WENT TO ZERO. AFTER LANDING, THE PLT CHECKED THE ACFT ENG OIL SYSTEM FOR LEAKS. THERE WERE NONE AND THE QUANTITY OF OIL WAS CORRECT AT 7 QTS. THE PLT THEN ELECTED TO CONTINUE FLT. ABOUT 1 HR INTO THE FLT, THE ACFT PROP WENT TO LOW PITCH; 30 SECONDS LATER THE ENG LOST POWER. THE PLT LANDED THE ACFT IN A FIELD. THE ENG WAS EXAMINED AND A HOLE WAS FOUND IN THE ENG CASE. THE NO 2 PISTON ROD HAD FAILED. THE ROD EXHIBITED SIGNS OF EXCESSIVE HEAT EVIDENT OF OIL STARVATION. THE REASON FOR THE LOSS OF OIL PRESSURE COULD NOT BE DETERMINED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT TO CONTINUE HIS FLIGHT WITH A UNRESOLVED DEFICIENCY IN THE AIRCRAFT POWERPLANT RESULTING IN TOTAL FAILURE OF THE POWERPLANT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA284
- Event ID
- 20001212X24049
- Case number
- LAX90LA284
- 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: cd87a5ab1854992da4d07c2bdea186ee7e56e21467b530d18e552da324c0604a; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:26:23.034Z.