CEN21LA145 · Quicksilver MXII
Quicksilver MXII · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Hattiesburg, MS (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21LA145
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Quicksilver MXII
- Aircraft type
- Quicksilver MXII
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hattiesburg, MS (private airstrip)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power (total)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot reported that while on final approach to land in his unregistered two-seat light sport airplane, when he retarded the throttle, the airplane’s engine experienced a complete loss of power. The pilot attempted to force land the airplane in a grass field, but the right wing struck a tree branch and the airplane subsequently impacted terrain coming to rest on its nose. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector conducted a postaccident examination of the airplane. The fuel tank and rudder were not present with the wreckage and there were no airplane identification markings. Flight control continuity was established but an engine examination was not conducted. The inspector requested the pilot produce the operating handbook, operating limitations, and maintenance records for the aircraft, which he could not. The National Transportation Safety Board attempted to have the engine examined further but the pilot would not allow it. The pilot reported there was adequate automotive fuel onboard when the engine failed. He examined the fuel lines, the fuel filter, and the carburetor, and found no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that he did not feel carburetor ice was involved, but that the engine failure was a fuel issue. However, the pilot could not produce any evidence to confirm that.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power for undetermined reasons and the pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from the trees during the subsequent forced landing resulting in an impact with trees and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21LA145
- Event ID
- 20210304102713
- Case number
- CEN21LA145
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 54b8d1f67422fc5428a066e8af23e5acb9d7ea79c114e8af398a058937676b35; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:46:22.919Z.