What happened
On 4 July 2018, a Slingsby T67B Firefly, registration G-BLPI, was conducting a solo circuit consolidation flight at RAF Wyton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. The pilot, a student with 13 hours of total flying experience, had previously completed several successful touch-and-go landings with an instructor during the same session.
During the flight, the aircraft experienced a series of bounces on the runway. The student pilot reported hitting a bump on the runway surface, which preceded a second touchdown. During this impact, the nosewheel assembly detached from the aircraft. Following the separation, the propeller made contact with the ground, and the aircraft came to a halt on the runway. The incident resulted in no injuries to the pilot, though the aircraft sustained damage to the cowling, fuselage, propeller, and nose landing gear, and the engine suffered shock-loading.
The investigation
Investigators reviewed the aircraft accident report submitted by the pilot and analyzed video footage of the event. The video evidence confirmed that the aircraft bounced twice before the nose pitched downward, striking the runway nosewheel-first.
While the student pilot noted that the sequence of events occurred too rapidly to recall specific control inputs, the instructor's account indicated that the approach initially appeared normal. However, the instructor observed the aircraft becoming momentarily airborne immediately after the initial touchdown, followed by the nose pitching down and the subsequent failure of the nosewheel assembly.