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ERA22LA321

2022-07-15 · Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport TCL

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot’s inadvertent use of the fuel mixture knob instead of the carburetor heat knob, which resulted in fuel starvation and a subsequent loss of engine power.

Factual narrative

The student pilot was practicing pattern work and while turning onto the base leg of the traffic pattern, inadvertently pulled the mixture knob instead of applying carburetor heat, resulting in a total loss of power. She attempted to restart the engine by pushing the mixture knob back in, however, the propeller had already stopped rotating and the engine did not restart. The student pilot elected to perform a forced landing to a field. During the approach to the field, she realized the airplane was too fast and decided to land in an adjacent field. During the landing, the right wing of the airplane struck a guy wire, which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane. The student pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Student/instructed pilot
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft power plant-Engine controls-Mixture control-Incorrect use/operation

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2022_ERA22LA321.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing, fuel starvation). All research papers