Mooney M20R N9166Z

Summary

On 9 June 2025 at about 10:00 local time, a Mooney M20R registered N9166Z was involved in an accident near New Port Richey, Florida, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

9 June 2025 at 10:00

Classification

Accident

Location

New Port Richey, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Hidden Lake (FA40)

Coordinates

28.2831, -82.6407

Aircraft

Mooney M20R

Registration

N9166Z

Category

Airplane

Year built

1995

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Inverness → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA25LA273

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's mismanagement of the available fuel, which resulted in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the landing flare, the airplane floated down the runway without touching down. The pilot felt uncomfortable attempting to land on the remaining runway, so he executed a go-around by adding full power and setting the flaps for climb. About 50 ft above the runway the engine stopped producing power. The airplane was too low for the pilot to fully troubleshoot, so he switched fuel tanks, but that did not restore power. The airplane descended into the runway overrun area and impacted brush and muddy terrain before coming to rest upright. The resulting impact resulted in substantial damage to the wings and fuselage. The fuel tanks remained intact. Postaccident engine examination and an engine test run detected no anomalies of the fuel injected engine. The fuel tanks were then drained revealing about 2.5 gallons of fuel in the left tank and 13 gallons in the right tank. Each tank held 3 gallons of unusable fuel. The pilot reported that he should have had at least 17 gallons of fuel remaining in the tanks at the time of the accident, based on his estimate of the airplane’s fuel consumption and the airplane’s most recent fueling that occurred 8 days before the accident. This estimate was roughly consistent with the total quantity of about 16 gallons that were found during the postaccident examination. Based on the distribution of fuel found in the tanks after the accident, the pilot was likely operating on the left fuel tank and, during the go around, the engine was starved of fuel, which resulted in the loss of engine power. When the pilot switched tanks, the airplane was at too low an altitude to successfully restore power before it impacted the terrain.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.