WPR19LA167 · Mooney M20V
Mooney M20V · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Scottsdale Airport (SDL) to Carson Airport (CXP)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR19LA167
- 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 M20V
- 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
- N576CM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZTo Carson Airport (CXP), Carson City, NV
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2019)
- 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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 power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a personal flight, the pilot notified air traffic control that he had a rough-running engine, and the pilot declared an emergency. The controller advised the pilot of two diversion airports; the first was located near the airplane’s position at the time, and the second was located about 12 miles south of the airplane’s position. The pilot elected to divert to the second airport. The pilot advised the controller a few minutes later that the airplane would be unable to reach that airport, and the radar track showed a right turn toward the other airport, which was about 8 miles east from the airplane’s position. No further communication from the pilot was received. A witness located near the accident site reported that the airplane maneuvered to avoid power lines and struck light poles before it impacted the ground. A postimpact fire ensued.
Postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed that engine control continuity was established from all the engine controls to their respective engine components. The engine exhibited extensive thermal damage. To prepare the engine for test runs performed by the manufacturer, several components and accessories were replaced due to thermal damage. The engine was successfully run at various power settings. No mechanical anomalies were noted with the recovered parts of the engine and airframe that would have precluded normal operation. As a result, the reason for the partial loss of engine power was not determined.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power during cruise flight for reasons that could not be determined with the available evidence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR19LA167
- Event ID
- 20190611X90234
- Case number
- WPR19LA167
- 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, coordinates, cause areas. 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: 6bc958c4ae4053964ca5e41e96b83f523f45ddffab1be7c471182db297dab59a; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:15:03.100Z.