LAX86LA137 · Mooney M-20C
Mooney M-20C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Gila Bend Municipal Airport (E63) to Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA137
- 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-20C
- 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
- N9694M
- Operator
- Robert D. Rens, DDS · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gila Bend Municipal Airport (E63), Gila Bend, AZTo Yuma International Airport / Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (YUM), Yuma, AZ
- 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 (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 exhaustion
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT LANDED AT GILA BEND MUNICIPAL ARPT FOR FUEL. THE REFUELING FACILITIES WERE CLOSED AND THE DECISION WAS MADE TO PROCEED TO YUMA INT'L ARPT, ABOUT 113 MILES EAST OF GILA BEND ARPT. THE PLT HAD FLOWN THE ACFT FOR ABOUT 4 HRS AND 5 MINUTES PRIOR TO DEPARTING FOR YUMA. ABOUT 40 MINUTES AFTER DEPARTING THE ARPT THE ACFT EXPERIENCED A TOTAL ENG PWR LOSS DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE PLT ELECTED TO LAND ON A DIRT STRIP. THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN LONG, OVERSHOT THE RWY AND COLLIDED WITH A SAND BERM EAST OF THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RWY. THE PLT LANDED TO THE EAST AND THE PREVAILING SURFACE WINDS WERE FROM THE WEST AT 15 TO 20 KTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA137
- Event ID
- 20001213X33095
- Case number
- LAX86LA137
- 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 1986-03-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 72b4b421f143c84a0fbb048135ca1af2ba3c8ba54e9f084b7895cb3b54e8924e; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:02:28.666Z.