Accident Overview
On July 20, 2017, about 1950 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 152, registration N714UY, was substantially damaged during a forced landing near Tamarac, Florida. The flight instructor and a student pilot were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the local instructional flight. The airplane was owned by Stone to Glass LLC and operated by Airplanes 4 Rent under 14 CFR Part 91.
Preflight and Flight Details
The flight instructor planned to take the student pilot on his last dual instruction flight before his first solo. The student performed the preflight inspection. He sumped the left fuel tank four times to remove water, and after the last sample, the instructor observed no water. She did not observe the right tank being sumped but asked the student, who reported "a little water" in the right tank. The instructor then performed her own preflight inspection and found no anomalies.
The student pilot taxied to runway 9, performed an engine run-up with no anomalies, and departed. They stayed in the traffic pattern for three touch-and-go landings, then flew to a practice area about 15 miles away. The instructor asked the student to perform clearing turns, then a steep turn to the right. During the steep turn, the engine lost total power. The student leveled the wings, and engine power was restored. The instructor decided to return immediately. The engine produced full power until about 10 miles from the airport, when it again lost total power, and the pilots realized they could not reach the airport.
Forced Landing and Wreckage
The instructor looked for a landing site and noticed a levy with a small access road on top, with slopes on both sides. She landed on the levy; the airplane veered left down the slope, struck foliage, and flipped over. She turned off the master switch and magnetos, and both occupants egressed through the windows.
Examination of the wreckage by an FAA inspector revealed the airplane came to rest inverted on top of sawgrass with the cabin partially submerged in water. Fuel samples taken from the belly drain and gascolator showed significant amounts of water in the fuel drained from both ports.