What happened
The incident occurred while a student pilot was conducting touch-and-go landing exercises. During one of these maneuvers, the aircraft touched down with excessive force, resulting in a hard landing. The impact caused the nose landing gear to collapse, allowing the nose wheel to strike the underside of the fuselage. Following the initial impact, the airplane continued to slide along the remaining length of the runway before coming to a complete stop while resting on its nose section.
The investigation
Following the event, the student pilot provided a statement regarding the condition of the aircraft prior to and during the incident. She reported that there were no known mechanical deficiencies or malfunctions with the airplane at the time of the accident. This suggests that the failure was likely due to the forces generated by the hard landing rather than a pre-existing structural or mechanical fault.
Findings
The pilot involved in the accident had a total flight experience of 37 hours. All of this experience was accumulated specifically in the make and model of aircraft involved in the incident. The primary factor leading to the damage was the hard landing during the touch-and-go practice, which exceeded the structural limits of the nose gear assembly.