What happened
Upon completing a standard touchdown, the aircraft experienced a structural failure involving the main fitting of the nose landing gear. This fracture caused the nose gear to collapse toward the rear of the aircraft, subsequently penetrating the lower section of the fuselage. The intrusion caused extensive damage to the equipment bay and resulted in the disconnection of the aircraft battery.
As a result of the fuselage breach, hydraulic fluid was released, producing smoke and fumes that migrated into both the cockpit and the passenger cabin. Following the shutdown of the engines, the loss of battery power led to the failure of the aircraft's public address systems. Additionally, the loss of electrical power rendered the remote cockpit door release mechanism non-functional.
Findings
- The primary sequence of events was initiated by the fracture of the nose landing gear main fitting.
- The structural failure allowed the nose gear to enter the fuselage, damaging critical internal components.
- The release of hydraulic fluid following the impact created smoke and fumes that entered the pressurized environment.
- The disconnection of the battery caused a total loss of power to the PA system and the remote door release mechanism.
- There were no documented issues with the manual cockpit door release or the PA system prior to this incident.