Incident Overview
A student pilot was conducting his first solo flight after demonstrating proficiency during three uneventful landings with his certified flight instructor. The instructor noted that the student's performance was above the standard for solo flight. During the solo flight, the student completed one uneventful touch-and-go landing on runway 9R and remained in the traffic pattern.
Hard Landing and Abnormal Sounds
The student reported that the approach for the subsequent landing appeared normal, but the touchdown was harder than usual. He continued the takeoff roll for another touch-and-go when he heard a weird sound. Suspecting that the noise coincided with a deflation of the nose landing gear tire, he added power. Shortly thereafter, the student felt a strange movement and believed the nose was falling. He reduced power to abort the takeoff and then heard and felt something making contact with the floor. After the aircraft came to rest, the student contacted the air traffic control tower to report the incident.
Post-Accident Inspection
Multiple FAA inspectors examined the airplane following the event. The wings, upper fuselage, cabin, tail, main landing gear, primary flight controls, engine, and engine mount were found intact. However, the nose landing gear inner cylinder had been pushed up through the upper housing. The firewall exhibited damage on the left, right, and aft sides of the nose landing gear mount, and a seven-inch buckle was present in the upper quadrant of the firewall. The cabin floor was bent. After recovery, the engine was started and operated normally.