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Atlas / NTSB / LAX93FA141

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX93FA141

1993-03-07 BIG BEAR CITY, California, United States Airport · L35 Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N2221G

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

MOONEY M20M

Year of manufacture

2000

Engine

LYCOMING TI0-540 SER (310 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20000512

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A1EAF1

Registrant of record

WS MANAGEMENT OF TYLER LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

A PARTIAL LOSS OF TAKEOFF POWER DUE TO INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION WHICH FAILED TO DETECT MAGNETO AND SPARK PLUG DEFICIENCIES. IN ADDITION, THE PILOT FAILED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF AFTER TWO UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO GET AIRBORNE. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF PILOTING EXPERIENCE.

Factual narrative

DURING TAKEOFF, THE AIRPLANE WAS HEARD TO REDUCE POWER AT MID-FIELD, THEN FULL POWER WAS APPLIED. IT CLIMBED TO ABOUT 6 FT, SETTLED BACK ONTO THE RWY, CLIMBED AGAIN TO 6 FT, SETTLED AGAIN, THEN CONTINUED ITS TAKEOFF ROLL USING MOST OF THE 5,850-FT RWY UNTIL REACHING THE ARPT PERIMETER FENCE. IT CLIMBED TO ABOUT 20 FT AGL, THEN SETTLED INTO A HOUSE. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS 7,800 FT. ENGINE EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE MAGNETO-TO-ENGINE TIMING WAS OFF, THE MAGNETO INTERNAL TIMING WAS OFF ON BOTH SETS OF POINTS, AND BOTH POINT GAPS WERE OFF. IN ADDITION, 5 OF THE 12 SPARK PLUGS WERE FOUND TO HAVE WORN ELECTRODES. ONE SPARK PLUG WAS NOT APPROVED FOR THE ENGINE. A 100-HR INSPECTION HAD BEEN COMPLETED ON 2/2/93, ABOUT 17 FLIGHT-HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1993_LAX93FA141.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗