ATL02FA026 · Mooney M20C
Mooney M20C · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Ormond Beach Municipal Airport (OMN) to Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL02FA026
- 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
- 1 · 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 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
- N6953V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ormond Beach Municipal Airport (OMN), Ormond Beach, FLTo Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL), Gainsville, GA
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, line › Blocked(total)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness in the local area observed the airplane rocking its wings and then nose down in a spin impacting into trees and the ground and burst into flames. The witness stated that he did not recall hearing any engine noise. Examination of the fuel selector valve found it to be selected to the left tank. Further examination of the fuel system revealed an obstruction in the right wing fuel tank supply line to the engine. The interior walls of the fuel tanks exhibited a heavy application of fuel tank sealing compound material. The left tank fuel screen assembly was removed for examination and appeared to be in a normal configuration. However, ash and unidentified debris was found within the fuel line. Examination of the right tank fuel screen assembly found it to be an unapproved parts configuration. The screen material appeared to be hand fabricated to fit the supply line. Additionally, an obstruction was located in the end of the right wing fuel tank supply line. The obstruction was removed and appeared to be a metal sleeve of unknown origin. The metal sleeve was lodged sideways within the end of the fuel line. A review of the airplane's maintenance records disclosed that the fuel tanks had undergone previous repair.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to fuel starvation, resulting from fuel system blockage and improper maintenance by maintenance personnel. A factor was the unsuitable terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL02FA026
- Event ID
- 20020103X00010
- Case number
- ATL02FA026
- 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: 9b1203a898ee669439972f036ad223cc0f7f683c87ec54f677bf58d4c19be3aa; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:15:27.430Z.