MIA88LA237 · Mooney M-20E
Mooney M-20E · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Punta Gorda Airport (PGD) to XO-6 · Arcadia, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA88LA237
- 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 M-20E
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M-20
- 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
- N9369M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Punta Gorda Airport (PGD)To XO-6 · Arcadia, FL
- 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
- Fuel contamination; Tree(s)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED HE KEPT HIS ACFT OUTDOORS & HE HAD NOT FLOWN IT FOR 7 DAYS. HE STATED HE HAD NOT REFUELED THE ACFT AFTER THE LAST FLT & HAD PARKED IT WITH 1/2 TANKS. FSS PERSONNEL STATED THERE HAD BEEN RAIN SHOWERS IN THE AREA DURING THAT TIME. THE PLT STATED THAT DURING PRE-FLT INSP, SUMPS WERE DRAINED & NO FOREIGN MATTER WAS FOUND. FLT DEPARTED FOR PUNTA GORDA WHERE ACFT WAS TOPPED OFF BY FUEL TRUCK. PRE-FLT INSP REVEALED PRESENCE OF WATER IN RIGHT SUMP DRAIN. THE SUMPS WERE DRAINED AGAIN UNTIL THE PLT FELT ALL WATER HAD BEEN REMOVED. AFTER DEPARTURE AT 800 FT, THE ENG QUIT & A FORCED LDG WAS MADE IN AN ORANGE GROVE. EXAM OF TRUCK REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF CONTAMINANTS. SOME WATER WAS FOUND IN THE ACFT'S RIGHT FUEL SUMP. PLT STATED HE ONLY HAD USED FUEL FROM THE LEFT TANK. DURING A POST ACCIDENT EXAM OF THE FUEL SYS WATER AND DIRT WERE FOUND IN THE IDLE CUTOFF VALVE AND THE DIAPHRAGM. THE DIAPHRAGM HAD CONGEALED OIL ON IT ALSO.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA88LA237
- Event ID
- 20001213X26321
- Case number
- MIA88LA237
- 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: e38fc1eda607402f00dd2e459d318bb601a7968981820a46c0651f64195a276a; retrieved 2026-09-23T09:26:54.600Z.