What happened
The pilot reported that during the arrival phase, he followed the Instrument Landing System (ILS) glide slope to touch down approximately 1000 feet down the runway. He described the landing as smooth. As the aircraft was approximately 100 feet from the intersection of runways 1/19 and 10/28, he observed a ridge of snow and ice across the runway surface. Because the aircraft was still traveling at approximately 50 knots, the crew could not avoid the obstruction. As the aircraft crossed the intersection, a loud noise was heard. The landing gear aural warning horn activated, and the red light on the nose gear indicator illuminated. After stopping, an inspection revealed that the nose gear was bent aft and the fuselage was wrinkled. Additionally, the space between the nosewheel tires was found packed with ice.
The investigation
A further investigation revealed that snowplow operators had been plowing snow on runway 10/28 and had made turn-arounds on runway 1/19 before N1011N had landed. The presence of the snow ridge was directly attributed to these ground operations.
Findings
The primary contributing factor was the inability to avoid a snow ridge caused by prior snowplow activity. The aircraft sustained significant damage to the nose landing gear and fuselage structure due to the impact with the frozen obstruction at high speed.