SEA89FA050 · Mooney M20K
Performance Aircraft Mooney M20K · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) to Hayward Executive Airport (HWD)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89FA050
- 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 M20K
- 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
- N94276
- Operator
- Performance Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, NVTo Hayward Executive Airport (HWD), Hayward, 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fuel system › Pressure too low
- Pilot in command › Fuel system, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER LEVELING OFF AT CRUISE, THE PILOT NOTED A LOSS OF FUEL FLOW. THE PILOT TURNED THE FUEL BOOST PUMP ON AND FUEL FLOW RETURNED TO NORMAL. WITH THE FUEL BOOST PUMP OFF THE FUEL FLOW DROPPED BELOW 6 GPH AND THE AIRCRAFT ENGINE DIED. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED A RESTART, BUT WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL. THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED BELOW THE CLOUDS INTO HEAVY SNOW SHOWERS. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A TREE AND THEN ROLLED INVERTED BEFORE STRIKING THE GROUND. POST-ACCIDENT, THE ENGINE WAS STARTED AND TEST RUN IN A TEST CELL. NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE FUEL SYSTEM WHEN TROUBLESHOOTING SURGING FUEL PRESSURE. A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS SNOW CONDITIONS WHICH IMPAIRED THE PILOT'S ABILITY TO MAKE A PROPER FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89FA050
- Event ID
- 20001213X27804
- Case number
- SEA89FA050
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-02-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 43c3874980d17fef8a3813f414bad5b582a8e68f6e679205ec37c99cff4c8579; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:17:09.747Z.