LAX87FA198 · Mooney M20K
Mooney M20K · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA198
- 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
- N231MW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
- 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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 starvation
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ON 4/28/87, AFTER A FLT FROM LONG BEACH TO LAS VEGAS, THE PLT REQUESTED THE LEFT WING TANK BE SVCD WITH 15 GAL OF FUEL; NO FUEL WAS ADDED TO THE RGT TANK. TWO DAYS LATER, THE PLT TOOK OFF ON THE RETURN FLT. DRG ARRIVAL AT LONG BEACH, HE WAS VECTORED FOR AN ILS RWY 30 APCH. WHILE ON FINAL APCH TO LAND, THE ENG LOST POWER. THE PLT INITIATED EMERG STARTING PROCEDURES, THEN DIRECTED HIS ATTENTION TO MAKING AN EMERG LANDING. DRG THE LANDING, THE ACFT STRUCK A HIWAY RAMP SIGN &LIGHT STANDARD, THEN CRASHED ON THE ROOF OF A LARGE BLDG. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO THE LEFT TANK WHICH WAS NEARLY EMPTY, BUT THE RIGHT TANK HAD APRX 15 GAL REMAINING. ALTHOUGH THE LEFT TANK HAD RUPTURED,ONLY ABOUT 1.5 GAL WAS FOUND IN THE TANK & ONLY AN ESTIMATED 1.5 GAL OF FUEL HAD SPILLED. LESS THAN 3 CC OF FUEL (TOTAL)WAS FND IN THE FUEL FEED & RETURN LINES TO THE ENG DRIVEN FUEL PUMP. FOUR GAL OF FUEL IN EACH TANK WAS CONSIDERED TO BE UNUSABLE. THE PLT OPERATING HANDBOOK DIRECTED THAT FOR LANDING, THE FUEL SELECTOR BE POSITIONED TO THE FULLEST TANK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA198
- Event ID
- 20001213X30707
- Case number
- LAX87FA198
- 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: 161681304b0c87f457faefdc88ec1908ce673745fcd03282719dfe65d326a3fe; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:13:46.810Z.