ERA14CA420 · Mooney Aircraft CORP. M20K
Surgical Pain Consulting Mooney Aircraft CORP. M20K · Accident: fire/smoke (non-impact) while standing
From Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB) to Witham Field (SUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14CA420
- 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 Aircraft CORP. M20K
- 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
- N231MN
- Operator
- Surgical Pain Consulting
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB), Vero Beach, FLTo Witham Field (SUA), Stuart, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 32 years (built 1982)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- Defining eventThe 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
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that when attempting the start the engine for an intended flight, the batteries were dead. As a result he asked the fixed base operator (FBO) for an external power cart to provide an external power source for his aircraft, which was a 12 volt system. He completed a waiver, but indicated he did not recall having a conversation with personnel of the FBO about the aircraft voltage requirement. Personnel of the FBO indicated the external power cart they used has a minimum voltage of 28 volts, and they asked the pilot if his aircraft's electrical system was 28 volts, to which he replied yes. A passenger remained outside the airplane, while the pilot was inside the airplane and a ground power unit (GPU) with a minimum of 28 volts was connected to the external power receptacle. The pilot indicated that he told the line service person to turn on power and he noticed that the alternator circuit breaker tripped. An individual from the (FBO) heard a bang and saw smoke coming from the airplane. The passenger who was outside the airplane later told the pilot that the line service person was frozen, but he was able to disconnect the (GPU) from the airplane, and in doing so noted arcing. The pilot reported that he saw smoke at the rear of the airplane, and the passenger who was outside the airplane reported that when he came off the wing an explosion occurred and fire and smoke was coming from the top of the airplane. The pilot exited the airplane and using a fire extinguisher from it, extinguished the fire. Fire department personnel responded however the fire had been extinguished before their arrival.
Postaccident inspection of the airframe revealed structural damage above a battery. Following the accident, the (FBO) added a line to their liability release indicating, "Aircraft voltage system is _____________ volts."
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot and personnel from the fixed base operator to assure the correct ground power unit was utilized to provide external power, resulting in damage to the aircraft's electrical wiring and subsequent damage to structure adjacent to the aircraft's battery.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14CA420
- Event ID
- 20140902X02240
- Case number
- ERA14CA420
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: b93a39dc430845741ea0de630bea0e1d91e2c5c06c10e2cfb451efd704a6dbea; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:42:20.863Z.