WPR22LA138 · Robinson Michael E COZY MARK IV
Robinson Michael E COZY MARK IV · Accident: fuel starvation on approach
From AVO · Marana, AZ to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR22LA138
- 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
Robinson Michael E COZY MARK IV
- Aircraft type
- Robinson Michael COZY MARK
- 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
- N294MV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From AVO · Marana, AZTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 6 years (built 2016)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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 systems
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a local flight, the pilot was maneuvering the amateur-built experimental airplane to final approach in the traffic pattern when the engine lost total power. The pilot noticed that the propeller was not windmilling and attempted to restart the engine but was unsuccessful. Subsequently, the airplane impacted trees about 1,000 ft short of the runway threshold and sustained substantial damage to both wings.
Postaccident examination of the engine revealed no evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. However, examination of the fuel system revealed a clogged fuel filter on the left fuel line and a partially clogged fuel filter on the right fuel line. The pilot stated that he had the left fuel tank selected at the time of the accident. Laboratory spectrum analysis determined the material clogging the fuel filters was consistent with an epoxide used in resins and sealants. Although the spectrum of the clogging material did not match that of an uncured sample of the sealant used during manufacture of the airplane, this was likely due to the cured state of the clogging material. The epoxide likely deteriorated, with the fragments becoming loose and clogging the fuel filters.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power during an approach due to clogged fuel filters, which resulted from an epoxide sealant used in manufacture of the airplane deteriorating and clogging the fuel filter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR22LA138
- Event ID
- 20220330104861
- Case number
- WPR22LA138
- 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: e8c48ab880f5f8702843eb69f5062797fcd099b2b0ae05899a8ae009180f5660; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:05:17.979Z.