CHI02FA042 · Mooney M20M
Mooney M20M · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Evansville Regional Airport (EVV) to Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02FA042
- 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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 M20M
- 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
- N7775L
- Operator
- Grant Scott
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Evansville Regional Airport (EVV), Evansville, INTo Indianapolis International Airport (IND), Indianapolis, IN
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Exhaust system, clamp › Fatigue
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The personal flight impacted terrain in a residential neighborhood about one mile north of the departure airport while executing an emergency return to the airport. The airplane impacted a wooded area in a 20-degree nose down trajectory and came to rest about 142 feet from the initial impact point. The pilot reported smoke in the cockpit 55 seconds after takeoff which was then followed by a report of a fire 32 seconds later. A witness reported seeing gray and black smoke trailing from the right side of the exhaust area. Inspection of the wreckage revealed that the turbocharger exhaust V-band clamp was separated through the band. Metallurgical examination indicated that the separation was consistent with a fatigue fracture. According to maintenance records, the V-band clamp was installed in 1990 in response to a service letter (SL). An airworthiness directive (AD) was then issued in 1991 requiring the replacement of the V-band clamp with one which was of the same part number as called for by the SL. The V-band clamp found in the wreckage of the accident airplane was of the same part number required by the SL and AD. The airplane received an annual inspection 25 days prior to the accident at which time the V-band clamp would have accumulated a total time in service of 1,402 hours. Engine overhauls and exhaust system related maintenance has necessitated the clamp's repeated removal and installation since its original installation. According to the airplane emergency procedures for smoke/fire, the master switch and fuel selector valve are to be selected to the off positions. Radio transmissions by the flight continued after the initial report of smoke. Inspection of the wreckage revealed that the fuel selector valve was selected to the right fuel tank.
Probable cause
The fatigue failure of the turbocharger exhaust band clamp and aircraft control not possible by the pilot due to the fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02FA042
- Event ID
- 20011206X02356
- Case number
- CHI02FA042
- 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, coordinates. 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: 20767e9fae1140eae75b3e4cb164c742f0dbc011ba155077eba5bb40f1aacbbb; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:16:47.514Z.