What happened
The pilot reported that the flight proceeded normally until the final approach phase. Upon attempting to land, the aircraft touched down heavily on its main landing gear. This initial impact caused the aircraft to bounce back into the air rather than settling onto the runway.
During the second contact with the ground, the aircraft again landed hard on the main gear. The force of this second touchdown was sufficient to cause the nose gear to collapse upon contact. Post-accident inspection confirmed that the damage was consistent with a hard landing on the nose gear, indicating that structural overload caused the failure.
The investigation
A physical examination of the aircraft revealed damage consistent with the pilot's description. The primary mechanical failure was identified as the collapse of the nose landing gear assembly. Analysis of the damage patterns indicated that the nose gear had sustained excessive vertical loads during the second touchdown event, exceeding its structural design limits.
Findings
The sequence of events began with a hard landing on the main gear, which resulted in an uncontrolled bounce. The subsequent hard contact of the nose gear with the runway surface led to immediate structural failure. The collapse was directly attributed to overload resulting from the high-impact forces generated during the bounced landing.