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ATL91LA004

1990-10-17 · KNOXVILLE, Tennessee, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport TN98

N19SR has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (DJI PHANTOM 2), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

PILOT'S INADVERTENT CLOSING OF THE FUEL SHUTOFF VALVE, WHICH TOTALLY OR PARTIALLY RESTRICTED FUEL FLOW TO THE ENGINE.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT REPORTED A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AT ABOUT 300 FEET AGL DURING THE TAKEOFF LEG. THE AIRPLANE WAS FORCE LANDED IN A LAKE ABOUT 500 FEET FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. AN ENGINE EXAMINATION FAILED TO REVEAL THE SOURCE OF THE POWER LOSS. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT SOMEONE MAY HAVE PLACED THE FUEL LEVER INTO THE 'OFF' POSITION PRIOR TO FLIGHT. HE ALSO STATED THAT HE MAY HAVE INADVERTENTLY KICKED THE FUEL SWITCH TO THE 'OFF' POSITION. HE REPORTED THAT HE DOES NOT USE A CHECKLIST, AND HE SETS THE COCKPIT SWITCHES UP FOR THE NEXT FLIGHT AFTER ENGINE SHUTDOWN. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_ATL91LA004.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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