Incident Overview
On 19 March 1999 at 1140 hours UTC, a Cessna 152 (registration G-BXJM) sustained substantial damage during a landing at Redhill Aerodrome, Surrey. The aircraft was on a private training flight with a single student pilot on board; there were no passengers. The pilot, aged 29, held a student pilot licence and had accumulated 23 hours of flying experience, all of which were on the Cessna 152 type (22 hours on type, with the remaining hour not specified, but total flying experience was 23 hours). The last 90 days and last 28 days each matched the total flying experience of 23 hours and 10 hours respectively.
Sequence of Events
The student pilot had just completed 10 solo circuits and was on approach to land. The touchdown appeared normal, and the aircraft began to roll along the runway. It then tilted forward onto the underside front cowling and veered to the right before coming to a stop. The pilot contacted Air Traffic Control (ATC) via radio to notify them of the situation, then turned off the fuel and electrical systems. He vacated the aircraft through the door. The aerodrome fire tender arrived quickly, but there was no post-crash fire.
Damage and Inspection
External inspection revealed that the nose landing gear had bent back, causing the propeller to contact the runway. The pilot expressed the opinion that the landing was not sufficiently hard to cause the nose wheel to collapse and that it might already have been weakened in previous landings. However, the subsequent engineering inspection and repair of the nose landing gear showed no sign of previous damage, but it had bent rearwards at its upper mounting during this accident.
Injuries and Damage
There were no injuries to the crew. The aircraft sustained substantial damage to the nose landing gear and propeller.
Probable Cause
No probable cause was stated in the source.