American Aviation AA 1A accident near Gainesville, Texas, February 21, 2017

The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record

The private pilot was conducting a familiarization flight with the non-pilot-rated passenger, who had recently purchased the airplane. They flew to a nearby airport to practice touch-and-go landings. After completing about 15 landings, they proceeded to another airport to get fuel. About 5 minutes before reaching the airport, the passenger noticed that the fuel pressure gauge indicated 0 psi, but the engine was operating smoothly. The pilot turned on the electric fuel boost pump and the fuel pressure gauge returned to 5 psi. The boost pump remained on for the remainder of the flight. Upon arrival at the airport, a go-around was performed. The engine experienced a loss of power during the climb about 200 ft above ground level and he performed a forced landing to a field short of the runway. Postaccident fuel consumption calculations revealed that the airplane likely contained about 1 gallon of fuel at the time of the accident, which would have been unusable. Examination of the fuel tanks revealed less than 1 cup of fuel in the left tank and no fuel remaining in the right tank. The fuel spill observed at the accident site by first responders was likely the 1 gallon of unusable fuel from the right tank, because the right wing was separated at the fuselage and its fuel line was fractured. No anomalies were noted with the engine and the propeller blades did not show any rotational signatures. Although the pilot reported that he flew the airplane during the final approach and go-around, there were discrepancies in his statements that suggested that the non-pilot rated passenger was actually manipulating the airplane controls during the loss of engine power.

The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.