What happened
The non-certificated student pilot was conducting her second landing after being endorsed to fly solo. The airplane touched down hard and bounced into the air. In an attempt to recover from the bounce, the pilot put the airplane in a nose down attitude and struck the runway with the nose wheel. The nose gear then collapsed. The student, sole occupant of the airplane, was not injured.
Findings
The primary factor in this incident was the hard landing that resulted in a bounce. The subsequent recovery attempt involved putting the aircraft into a nose-down attitude, which caused the nose wheel to strike the runway surface with excessive force. This impact led directly to the structural failure of the nose gear. No other mechanical failures or environmental factors were cited as contributing to the event.