LAX87LA082 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From L39 · Ramona, CA to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA082
- 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
- N6864U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L39 · Ramona, CATo not recorded
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly › Failure, total
- Fluid, oil › Loss, total
- Lubricating system, oil magnetic plug › Separation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Spring Valley, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A MOONEY M20C COLLIDED WITH AN AUTOMOBILE DURING LANDING ROLL AFTER LANDING ON A ROAD. THE PLT INDICATED THAT WHILE CRUISING AT 3,500 FT MSL HE NOTICED THE ENG OIL PRESSURE FALL TO ZERO. THE CONSTANT SPEED PROPELLOR SIMULTANEOUSLY WENT TO LOW PITCH, FOLLOWED BY THE ENG SEIZING. THE PLT WAS FORCED TO LAND AND SELECTED A ROAD TO LAND ON. ON FINAL APPROACH THE PLT OBSERVED TWO AUTOMOBILES HAD DRIVEN INTO HIS PLANNED LANDING AREA. DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE PLT WAS ABLE TO AVOID THE FIRST AUTOMOBILE, BUT COLLIDED WITH THE SECOND. THE ACFT LEFT WING WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED IN THE COLLISION. THE AUTOMOBILE WAS ALSO DAMAGED AND ITS DRIVER SUSTAINED MINOR INJURIES. EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT ENG REVEALED THE ENG OIL DRAIN PLUG WAS MISSING WITH NO EVIDENCE OF IT BEING SAFETY WIRED. THE ENG HAD COMPLETED AN ANNUAL INSPECTION 4 DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT AND HAD ACCUMULATED 2.9 HOURS OF OPERATION SINCE A MAJOR OVERHAUL. THIS WAS THE ACFTS SECOND FLIGHT SINCE THE ENG WAS OVERHAULED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA082
- Event ID
- 20001213X30101
- Case number
- LAX87LA082
- 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: 0c8f1873aafd7a247f881c3d1d2c4b853264d3fe391170af8ae5d5f6d0748dcd; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:06:25.647Z.