This December 2008 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Aircraft: Cessna 172. Injuries: None. Location: Morristown, N.J. Aircraft damage: Substantial.
What reportedly happened: The instructor and his pilot-rated student were conducting an instrument flight. The reported weather included a vertical visibility of 200 feet and a quarter of a mile visibility in fog. After the first approach with the student at the controls, the runway was not visually acquired at the decision height and a missed approach was performed. The instructor took the controls for the second approach and asked the student to monitor the radios and look for the runway.
At 400 feet above ground level, the instructor saw the runway below him, and noted the airplane was slightly high on the glide slope and a little fast. He reduced the throttle to idle and added full flaps. The airplane touched down long and the instructor was unable to bring the airplane to a stop on the remaining runway.
Probable cause: The flight instructor’s failure to execute a missed approach when insufficient runway remained for landing. Contributing to the accident were the low ceiling and visibility conditions.
For more information: NTSB.gov
The ILS to MMU runway 23 is 6,000 ft. He was fast,and,I assume had only partial (10 degrees?)flap when he made visual contact at 400 ft agl. I would guess, the most available runway remaining to touchdown and stop was less then 1,000 ft. This was a simple case of the CFI not “embarrssing” himself in front of the student,” Now I’ll show YOU how it’s done” – yeah right! Oh, is ego spelled with one O or 2?