This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
On roughly a three-mile final I told my student to maintain altitude at 4,800 until on glide path as we were getting four red lights on the PAPI.
We descended to 4,700 and again I said “maintain altitude until we get two reds and two whites.” At this time, he said “I’m at full throttle.”
We were descending now at about 1,000 rpms with throttle full and losing about 500 feet per minute.
At this point I took control and told my student, “I think we are landing on the freeway.”
A few moments later and only about 100 feet off the ground I said to my student, “We are landing on the freeway.”
I jockeyed the throttle a couple times and the Cessna 150’s engine sputtered. Then I pushed the mixture to full rich and the engine sputtered back to life. We slowly climbed away from the freeway and returned to the airport without further incident.
As I turned onto final approach to the freeway, I noticed traffic ahead about 1,000 yards and traffic behind about 3/4 mile. We were luckily positioned as to not harm anyone else.
After landing we inspected the inside of the engine cowl to find a wrench lodged. A more thorough preflight by my student may have found the wrench. It was difficult to see after the flight when I was inspecting with an intention to find something amiss.
The mixture was not changed from the run-up until about to touch down on the freeway. It was set perfectly for field elevation where we took off and landed. So, the only thing I can think to cause the problem was the wrench lodged against something disturbing the mixture or throttle. I look forward to talking with the mechanic tomorrow to see what exactly the wrench was lodged against and if that was the problem.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 2142516
