What happened
On 16 April 2008, a Streak Shadow, registration G-BZWJ, was performing a private flight from Headcorn to Clacton Airfield in Essex. The flight proceeded without incident until the landing phase on the airfield's grass runway. As the pilot lowered the nose onto the runway surface, the nose leg suddenly collapsed, causing the nosewheel to detach from the aircraft. The pilot and the aircraft were able to exit the vehicle safely, and no injuries were reported. Aside from the loss of the nosewheel, no additional damage was sustained by the aircraft.
The investigation
An examination of the failed component was conducted by an engineer present at the site. The investigation focused on the fracture surface of the nose leg shaft. The analysis revealed that the shaft had broken at a location situated just above the support bearing for the castoring nosewheel. The engineer identified specific characteristics on the fracture surface indicating that a fatigue crack had developed prior to the final structural failure caused by an overload. However, the nose leg was discarded before a more detailed metallurgical examination could be performed.