NYC04LA163 · Mooney M20J
Mooney M20J · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Hackettstown Airport (N05) to Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWM)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA163
- 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
- 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 M20J
- 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
- N302SB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hackettstown Airport (N05), Hackettstown, NJTo Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWM), Lawrence, MA
- 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
- 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 contamination; Tree(s)
- 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 › Contamination, water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the initial climb after takeoff, about 100 feet above ground level, the engine experienced a total loss of power. The airplane struck the rooftop of a residence, and came to rest in trees, about 200 feet from the departure end of the runway. Examination of the airplane and engine did not reveal any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions; however, water was observed in the engine driven fuel pump, flow divider and gascolator. The airplane was equipped with sump drains at the lowest point in each tank. A drain valve was also installed in the fuel selector valve assembly. Additionally, the airplane information manual, normal procedures, pre-flight inspection section contained procedures to check for, and remove "sediment contamination and condensed water accumulation." The airplane was last refueled and flown the day before the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection, which resulted in the total loss of engine power due to fuel contamination, during the initial climb after takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA163
- Event ID
- 20040713X00957
- Case number
- NYC04LA163
- 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: f2d20215bff78f521452e4e7df010df1c52382444dcb5a2922f04f5093f99280; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:11:52.164Z.