March 4, Rome, N.Y. / Ercoupe

At about 17:00 EST, an Ercoupe 415-C crashed during a forced landing at Griffiss Airpark. Neither occupant was injured. The pilot was shooting touch and goes when he inadvertently selected the mixture control to off instead of carburetor heat at 300 feet agl. The pilot realized the error, but elected to continue the approach without trying to restart the engine because of altitude remaining. The airplane then developed a high sink rate and the airplane impacted the runway approximately 10 degrees nose down at 50 knots.