What happened
On March 24, 2021, a Cessna 207A, registration N9177M, was performing a landing in Laredo, Texas, under visual meteorological conditions with 10 miles of visibility and winds from 140 degrees at 7 knots. During the landing flare, the pilot encountered an updraft that lifted the aircraft. This caused the airplane to bounce twice before a hard landing occurred.
As the pilot released back pressure during the landing rollout, the propeller struck the runway. Following the impact, the pilot shut down the engine and exited the aircraft, at which point it was observed that the nose landing gear had been lost. The aircraft sustained substantial damage to the forward fuselage. There were no injuries reported.
The investigation
The investigation confirmed the pilot's account of an updraft during the flare. The analysis determined that after the initial bounce, the pilot attempted a second flare, but the subsequent hard landing led to the propeller strike and the loss of the nose landing gear.