Flight instructor reported his solo pilot student had fuel starvation resulting in engine failure; r...

Narrative:

I had signed off to allow my student to do his local solo flight in our practice areas. He encountered an engine out issue and had to make an emergency engine out landing at our home airport ZZZ. Here are the words from my solo student:preflight was normal. Fueled tanks to 30 gallons. Aircraft responded nominally during run up; take off; departure. I climbed to 3;000 ft. And started to perform clearing turns then slow flight. During slow flight; the right fuel tank gauge fluctuated rapidly between 0 and 10 while the annunciator said 'right fuel lo'. As a precaution; I changed the fuel selector switch to left tank. I redirected back to ZZZ. During return flight; I noticed that the left fuel indicator was draining quicker than usual but I'm unsure due to being unnerved. During approach to base for runway 19L. The engine started to sound rough and power was slowly dwindling. On final; the aircraft engine ceased operating. I was able to restart the engine and was given a brief moment of power from the engine before it ceased. I performed engine failure procedure during and after landing.' after bringing the aircraft back to the hangar; we check the fuel tanks and there was 18 gals in the left tank and 17 gals in the right tank. We suspect it might be an issue with fuel line. Maintenance will look more into it tomorrow.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight Instructor reported his solo pilot student had fuel starvation resulting in engine failure; resulting in a return to the departure airport.

Narrative: I had signed off to allow my student to do his local solo flight in our practice areas. He encountered an engine out issue and had to make an emergency engine out landing at our home airport ZZZ. Here are the words from my solo student:Preflight was normal. Fueled tanks to 30 gallons. Aircraft responded nominally during run up; take off; departure. I climbed to 3;000 ft. and started to perform clearing turns then slow flight. During slow flight; the right fuel tank gauge fluctuated rapidly between 0 and 10 while the annunciator said 'Right Fuel Lo'. As a precaution; I changed the fuel selector switch to left tank. I redirected back to ZZZ. During return flight; I noticed that the left fuel indicator was draining quicker than usual but I'm unsure due to being unnerved. During approach to base for runway 19L. The engine started to sound rough and power was slowly dwindling. On final; the aircraft engine ceased operating. I was able to restart the engine and was given a brief moment of power from the engine before it ceased. I performed engine failure procedure during and after landing.' After bringing the aircraft back to the hangar; we check the fuel tanks and there was 18 gals in the left tank and 17 gals in the right tank. We suspect it might be an issue with fuel line. Maintenance will look more into it tomorrow.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1749516
Time
Date	202007
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Tower
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel Distribution System
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 510 Flight Crew Type 465
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

Flight instructor reported his solo pilot student had fuel starvation resulting in engine failure; resulting in a return to the departure airport.