Engine Power Lost, Fuel Tank Empty, Rough Running Engine and a Fatal Crash of Mooney M20B

Fuel in One Tank, None in the Other

The Mooney M20B had fuel aboard when it crashed near Kellyton, Alabama, on 13 December 2022. Just not in the tank the pilot was drawing from. Investigators who examined the wreckage found the left tank still held usable fuel — but the right tank, the one selected at the time of the accident, was empty. It's a distinction that made all the difference: an aircraft that runs out of gas entirely is a straightforward fuel-exhaustion accident, but an aircraft with fuel on board that simply isn't reaching the engine, because of which tank is selected, is fuel starvation — and it's almost always preventable with nothing more than switching tanks in time.

A Rough Engine at 6,000 Feet

The flight was a corporate trip, operating under instrument flight rules, from Perry-Houston County Airport toward Bessemer Airport. Cruising at 6,000 feet, the engine began running rough. The pilot declared an emergency — multiple mayday calls went out — and turned to divert toward Thomas C. Russell Field Airport, the nearest suitable runway. For a moment, it looked like the aircraft might make it: the engine briefly regained power during the turn toward the diversion field. Then radar and radio contact were lost.

No Engine Noise Before Impact

Witnesses on the ground reported hearing the aircraft strike trees — and specifically, hearing no engine noise as it did. The Mooney rolled inverted and struck a pasture nose-first. There was no post-impact fire, a detail consistent with an aircraft that had already lost engine power well before the ground came up to meet it, since a running engine and full fuel lines are usually what feed a crash fire in the first place.

A Propeller That Barely Turned

One of the more telling pieces of physical evidence investigators look for after any crash involving engine trouble is the propeller itself — specifically, how much rotational damage it shows. A propeller spinning under power at impact typically shows distinctive twisting, bending, or chordwise scoring on its blades, evidence of the engine still driving it through the crash sequence. This propeller showed only minimal rotational damage, consistent with the engine producing little or no power in the moments before the aircraft went down — physical confirmation, alongside the witness accounts of a silent approach, that whatever power the pilot briefly regained during the turn didn't last.

An Engine That Tested Normal

What makes this case genuinely puzzling, rather than a simple case of pilot error, is what investigators found — and didn't find — inside the engine itself. A detailed post-accident inspection turned up no mechanical fault: the engine operated normally when examined. That leaves the empty right tank as the central, documented fact of the case, without a fully resolved explanation connecting the fuel selector position to why the engine ran rough in the first place, or why the brief recovery of power during the turn toward the diversion airport didn't hold.

What the NTSB Concluded

The final probable cause is direct even without every mechanical question fully answered: a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation. The findings point to the pilot's own task performance and flight planning — the tank selection and fuel management during the flight — as the operative failure, distinct from any defect in the aircraft itself.

Why Fuel Starvation Is Its Own Category

Aviation accident investigators draw a meaningful distinction between fuel exhaustion — running completely out of usable fuel — and fuel starvation, where fuel exists aboard the aircraft but isn't reaching the engine because of how the fuel system is configured or managed.

Corporate Flying and Time Pressure

The flight's status as a corporate trip is a detail worth noting without overstating its significance — business aviation flights, particularly those operating on tighter schedules tied to meetings or commitments at the destination, can carry subtle pressure toward continuing a flight rather than taking a more conservative option, even when nothing about the specific circumstances of this accident points to that pressure as a documented contributing factor.

The Silence Witnesses Described

The detail of witnesses specifically noting the absence of engine noise before the aircraft struck trees carries real investigative weight, beyond simply confirming engine trouble.

An Engine Exonerated, a Decision Left Standing

Perhaps the most important finding in this investigation is what the engine inspection didn't find: no mechanical fault, no defect, nothing wrong with the engine itself when examined after the crash.