Incident
During the climb to cruise on a cross-country flight, the passenger door opened. The pilot initiated a precautionary approach for landing at an airport along the route. After beginning the descent for landing, the pilot discovered that the engine had lost all power. The landing was made short of the intended runway with the landing gear retracted.
Post-landing Findings
Following the landing and evacuation of the aircraft by the pilot and passengers, witnesses observed that the cockpit was fully configured for flight. The throttle and propeller controls were full forward, and the magnetos and master switch were on. However, the mixture was in the cutoff position. Examination and testing of the passenger door revealed no abnormalities.
Pilot Background
The flight was the pilot's first flight after being signed off as competent to act as pilot in command in this make and model aircraft. The pilot had accumulated approximately 4 hours of flight experience in the aircraft, with a total flight time of 207 hours, all in single-engine land airplanes.