A flight instructor was teaching a student how to restart a plane’s engine midflight when mechanical problems forced the pair to attempt a landing on Interstate 25 near Larkspur last year, according to a federal report.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report describes the circumstances of the emergency landing and crash, which occurred after one of the plane’s wings clipped a road sign, causing it to veer into a nearby marsh.
The report did not say what caused the malfunction aboard the Tecnam P2006T aircraft, and the NTSB’s investigation into the crash is ongoing.
On June 16, the pair departed Centennial Airport in Englewood and completed five landings before taking off again to practice in-air emergency procedures.
When they turned off one of the plane’s engines, it took two tries to restart. They decided to return to the airport but noticed the plane was becoming difficult to steer as the engine’s coolant levels and revolutions per minute fell.
The flight instructor took over, but the plane continued to descend, and the two braced for a forced landing on I-25. The instructor and student were seriously injured in the crash.
The report notes that bystander video of the crash shows the left propeller of the plane not rotating as the plane descended over the interstate.
Recording devices aboard the plane were recovered from the crash site and were examined along with the aircraft by NTSB investigators.
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