DEN05CA020 · Mooney M20E
Mooney M20E · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Miami Municipal Airport (MIO) to Tucumcari Municipal Airport (TCC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN05CA020
- 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 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
- N2695W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami Municipal Airport (MIO), Miami, OKTo Tucumcari Municipal Airport (TCC), Tucumcari, NM
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While preparing to depart, the pilot stated that the airplane's "battery seemed weak" and noted that the ammeter was not charging or discharging. The pilot had the battery charged for 1/2 hour and elected to fly to another airport to have a mechanic examine the airplane. While en route, he noticed "the engine was running rough." The pilot checked both magnetos and noted the left magneto selection resulted in a rough engine. The fuel pressure was also low; however, the pilot felt he would be okay until arriving at his destination. The pilot stated that both magnetos began to run rough. He was unable to maintain altitude and landed on a highway. While maneuvering the airplane to avoid oncoming traffic, the airplane struck a road sign causing substantial damage. Examination of the engine revealed that the P-lead had broken off of the right magneto. The P-lead had been rubbing against a bracket aft of the P-lead, prior to its failure. FAA inspector who examined the airplane stated that an annual inspection should have discovered this situation.
Probable cause
Inadequate maintenance inspection which failed to detect the separation of the right P-lead, resulting in a loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN05CA020
- Event ID
- 20041203X01922
- Case number
- DEN05CA020
- 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: 8ade70dba2e2f5181d05fa3eda6246d89081cb9dd81691353bfd6b88b337acda; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:32:54.831Z.