What happened
During the landing phase, the pilot of a light twin-engine airplane performed a hard landing. The pilot believed the aircraft had encountered a sudden downdraft while in the flare. This perception was supported by a witness who observed the aircraft drop suddenly from an altitude of approximately 3 to 5 feet.
The aircraft initially made contact with the main landing gear, followed immediately by the nose gear. The aircraft then bounced twice, striking the ground hard on the nose gear during both instances before finally coming to rest on the runway.
At the time of the accident, winds were recorded at 5 knots from a direction 60 degrees off the nose of the airplane. Prior to this event, two single-engine airplanes had landed at the same location without difficulty. The pilot had a total of approximately 230 flight hours, with 78 hours logged in this specific aircraft type. Notably, the pilot had received his multi-engine rating only the previous day.