BFO91LA003 · Mooney M20M
Mooney M20M · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Rosario Seaplane Base (W49) to W10 · Manassas, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO91LA003
- 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 M20M
- 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
- N987CM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rosario Seaplane Base (W49)To W10 · Manassas, VA
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Airframe, component or system 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 compartment › Fire
- Exhaust system, clamp › Fatigue
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Disconnected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT INDICATED THAT DURING AN APPROACH TO LAND, HE NOTED THE SMELL OF A POSSIBLE OVERHEAT CONDITION, BUT THE ODOR WENT AWAY. HE CHECKED THE ACFT AFTER LANDING, BUT DID NOT NOTICE ANY DISCREPANCIES. HE TOOK OFF SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, AND DURING THE CLIMBOUT, SMOKE BEGAN FILLING THE CABIN. THE SMOKE EMERGED FROM THE AREA OF THE RUDDER PEDALS AND FLAMES APPEARED SOON AFTERWARDS. THE PLT TURNED BACK TO THE AIRPORT AND LANDED GEARUP. THE ACFT SLID OFF THE RUNWAY AND INTO A DITCH. A FIRE ERUPTED, BUT THE PLT AND PAX ESCAPED THE ACFT. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED INTERGRANULAR CRACKING OF THE CLAMP THAT CONNECTED THE TURBOCHARGER AND TAILPIPE.
Probable cause
INTERGRANULAR CRACKING (FATIGUE) FAILURE OF THE EXHAUST CLAMP, WHICH RESULTED IN A DISCONNECTED EXHAUST MANIFOLD (TAILPIPE), AND SUBSEQUENT FIRE IN THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO91LA003
- Event ID
- 20001212X24415
- Case number
- BFO91LA003
- 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: 7e290bb11c8f00f80db375be0c427faeef1897e0287c6d24c454f916e24f3e5b; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:34:26.510Z.