Primary finding
Probable cause
the student's inadvertent use of the mixture control and the flight instructor's inadequate supervision during the final approach resulting in the loss of engine power due to fuel starvation and the subsequent nose over during the forced landing.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
During the final approach, the instructor told the student to reduce engine power. According to the instructor, ' . . . instead of pulling the power back, he pulled the mixture control knob all the (way) back. I failed to catch his mistake in time.' The instructor did a forced landing and the aircraft landed short of the runway and nosed over. The student had 7 hours of total time.
Source record
Factual narrative
On November 13, 1995, about 1410 eastern standard time, a Cessna 150J, received substantial damage when it nosed over, during a forced landing, at the Norwood Memorial Airport, Norwood, Massachusetts. The flight instructor and student pilot were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local flight. There was no flight plan for the instructional flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. In the NTSB form 6120.1/2, the flight instructor stated: ...Everything was just fine until short final. We were a little high, so I told my student to decrease the power. Instead of pulling the power back, he pulled the mixture control knob all the [way] back. I failed to catch his mistake in time....I looked at his hand and saw the mixture full lean. I pushed it back in and tried restart....The engine wouldn't [start]....I tried...to glide the plane to the runway but...we were too low and slow....I decided to put the plane down on the grass before the runway....As soon as the nose gear came down...it snapped. When the nose gear snapped, the nose fell and the plane flipped over.... -