NYC02FA200 · Mooney M20E
Mooney M20E · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Eagles Nest Airport (31E) to 31E
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02FA200
- 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 M20E
- 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
- N5556Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eagles Nest Airport (31E), West Creek, NJTo 31E
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial 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 contamination; Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Two witnesses reported that the pilot completed a preflight inspection of his airplane, but they could not confirm if he sumped the fuel tanks. They saw the airplane taxi to the 3,200-foot long, 60-foot wide, asphalt runway; and heard the engine run-up. The witnesses then observed the airplane begin a takeoff roll. As it passed behind trees, they did not see the airplane climb above the tree line. One witness heard a sputter, while the other witness heard the engine noise cease, with no roughness. They then heard the sound of impact. A third witness did not see the accident, but heard the engine race at full throttle, then the sound of impact. The airplane came to rest approximately 2,000 feet beyond the approach end of the runway, 1,200 feet prior to the departure end of the runway, and 176 feet to the right of the runway centerline. It was oriented nose down, in a near vertical attitude. Two freshly cut tree branches were located near the wreckage. One branch was approximately 1 inch in diameter, and the other branch was approximately 3 inches in diameter. One propeller blade exhibited chord-wise scratching, and an approximate 4-inch section of the tip was missing from the other propeller blade. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions with the airframe or engine. Traces of water in were found in the fuel servo and fuel manifold. The airplane was not kept in a hangar. Approximately 1/2 inch of rain fell 4 days prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection which failed to detect water-contaminated fuel, and his failure to maintain airspeed.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02FA200
- Event ID
- 20021004X05280
- Case number
- NYC02FA200
- 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: 677f5be96d173bb9d08831be389a841f98ddc0217b7c33a5083b0b457dd9a4e5; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:45:01.289Z.