What happened
On 6 March 2004, a Blackburn CR Cozy, registration G-BXDO, was involved in a ground accident at Shobdon, Herefordshire. The aircraft, which was being operated on a private flight, had completed a routine landing without incident. However, while the pilot was taxiing at low speed along a grass taxiway, the nose landing gear suddenly collapsed. This failure caused the nose of the aircraft to strike the ground.
The investigation
Investigators examined the aircraft's nose landing gear assembly following the event. The inspection revealed that the structural attachment point for the gear had become disbonded from the underside of the fuselage.
During the inquiry, the pilot provided information regarding a flight occurring three weeks prior to the accident. On that previous occasion, the aircraft had been taxied into soft ground, resulting in the plane becoming stuck. The pilot noted that the recovery process from the soft ground may have subjected the nose landing gear to excessive stress, though this-overstressing was not identified by the pilot at the time of the initial incident.