What happened
On May 3, 2012, a Short Bros. & Harland SC7 Series 3 operated by Ryan Air Inc was performing a landing at Chefornak, Alaska. The aircraft, registration N1906, was attempting to land on a narrow gravel runway situated next to a gravel road. At the time of the accident, the weather was characterized by VMC with 10 statute mile visibility and winds from 270 degrees at 03 knots.
The pilot reported that both the runway and the adjacent road were covered in snow. Due to flat light conditions, the pilot was unable to distinguish between the two surfaces and inadvertently landed the aircraft to the left of the runway on the rough road. The impact with the road surface caused structural damage to the nose landing gear bulkhead. There were no injuries resulting from the event.