What happened
During the landing phase of an air carrier passenger flight, the aircraft was operating on a 2,12/0-foot long by 35-foot wide gravel runway. The surface conditions were icy, and the aircraft encountered a nearly direct crosswind from the right at 15 to 20 knots.
As the landing roll progressed, the first officer deflected the ailerons fully into the wind according to the captain's directions. Despite these efforts and the captain's manipulation of flight controls and engine power, the aircraft drifted to the left. The aircraft subsequently encountered a snow berm located alongside the runway. This impact pulled the plane off the runway into deeper snow, causing the nose gear to collapse and resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage directly behind the nose gear. There were no fatalities or injuries reported.
The investigation
The captain initially reported that the nose wheel steering may have experienced a mechanical failure, as he believed the steering did not turn fully to the right during his attempts to maintain directional control. However, a review of the aircraft's maintenance and flight discrepancy logs showed no pre-accident mechanical problems with the nose wheel steering assembly.
Post-accident inspections, including bench testing and disassembly of the nose wheel steering actuator, revealed no significant operational problems that would have prevented the actuator from functioning correctly. Furthermore, interviews with the first officer and a captain who had flown the aircraft the previous day indicated no prior knowledge of steering difficulties. An observation by a company captain who inspected the site suggested the nose wheel had been turned fully to the right and had simply skidded on the icy surface.