What happened
The incident occurred during a routine training or practice maneuver involving a touch-and-go landing sequence. During the second landing attempt of this series, the pilot initiated the flare phase of the approach but raised the nose of the aircraft excessively high, reaching an altitude of approximately 10 feet above the runway surface before gravity pulled the airplane back down.
This excessive height resulted in a hard impact with the runway pavement. The force of the touchdown was significant enough to cause structural damage to the airframe. Specifically, the firewall and the right wing sustained damage during the impact event.
The investigation
Following the incident, the pilot provided a detailed account of the events leading up to the hard landing. He confirmed that he had flared too high on the second attempt, directly attributing the severity of the touchdown to this control input error.
The pilot also reported that there were no pre-impact mechanical malfunctions or failures with either the airframe or the engine. This indicates that the aircraft was mechanically sound prior to the hard landing, and the damage was a direct result of the operational error during the landing maneuver rather than a system failure.