What happened
During the landing roll, the aircraft veered off the left side of the runway. The pilot reported that the main landing gear touched down normally; however, upon touchdown of the nose landing gear, the aircraft suddenly and violently departed from the runway centerline. This movement caused the aircraft to strike a snow bank, which resulted in the collapse of the nose landing gear. Runway tire and skid marks confirmed that the aircraft's track diverged more than 70 degrees from the centerline immediately after the nose wheel touched down. The pilot noted that the nose landing gear did not appear to respond to normal control inputs.
The investigation
An examination of the tires showed that the nose tire had been scrubbed perpendicularly to the tread from right to left. No unusual signatures or flat spots were found on the main tires or brakes. Investigators found that a bolt attaching the hydraulic actuator to the engine mount had sheared, and the nose gear steering arm was fractured. While the steering arm met manufacturer specifications, its failure, along with the bolt failure, was attributed to an overload condition. The steering bungee showed no obvious anomalies.
Findings
Investigation revealed that the manufacturer had received 32 prior reports of temporary and unexplained loss of directional control following nose wheel touchdown, particularly during crosswinds or when using full propeller reverse. The manufacturer's engineering department identified insufficient nose gear steering authority as a contributing cause, noting that under certain conditions, the system rotation could momentarily exceed pilot input. Although the manufacturer had issued a service bulletin for modifications to increase steering authority, and this specific aircraft was manufactured after those modifications were implemented on the production line, the directional control issue persisted.