ATL88LA217 · Mooney M20E
Mooney M20E · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Barrow County Airport (WDR)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL88LA217
- 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 M20E
- 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
- N6810V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Barrow County Airport (WDR), Winder, GA
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Failure, total
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Procedures/directives, not understood
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lawrenceville, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE FAILED SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF. THE PILOT MADE A 180 DEGREE TURN AND LANDED DOWNWIND ON THE RUNWAY. HE ELECTED TO LAND GEAR UP TO AVOID A DROP-OFF PAST THE RUNWAY END. THE ACFT SLID OFF THE RUNWAY END, BUT CAME TO A STOP BEFORE REACHING THE DROP-OFF. EXAM OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE #4 ROD BEARING HAD FAILED DUE TO LACK OF LUBRICATION, ALTHOUGH THERE WAS OIL IN THE CRANKCASE. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ENGINE HAD EXPERIENCED AN INFLIGHT LOSS OF OIL PRESSURE 2 DAYS BEFORE,AND HE MADE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING. THE MECHANIC WHO SUBSEQUENTLY EXAMINED THE ENGINE FOUND AN IMPROPERLY SECURED FITTING ON THE PROP GOV OIL LINE. HE ALSO FOUND 1 QUART OF OIL REMAINING. THE MECHANIC SECURED THE FITTING, CHECKED THE OIL FILTER AND SCREEN FOR METAL, THEN SERVICED THE ENGINE WITH OIL. THE ENGINE WAS TEST RUN SEVERAL TIMES THEN RELEASED TO THE OWNER. THE ENGINE MANUFACTURER STATES IN THE ENGINE SPECS THAT THE MINIMUM SAFE OIL QUANTITY IN THE ENGINE IS 2 QUARTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL88LA217
- Event ID
- 20001213X26126
- Case number
- ATL88LA217
- 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: ecb0a6082510bcfce6941972a93e14756a64a9eb24a3590617178859c3c19cee; retrieved 2026-09-23T09:32:20.413Z.