20080807844299I

(-23) The pilot stated that while flying flight express route 915, a route that originates from lunken field, cincinnati, OH, and continues to tys, bna, bwg, and terminates at luk, on August 6, 2008, the following events occurred; flight 915 had no indication of any abnormalities with the airplane on the previous leg, the landing was normal at tys, as was the departue and all en route segments. Upon arrival at bna, approach control vectored flight 915 to the southeast of the field for sequencing into the arrival flow. They asked the pilot to keep his speed up as fas as possible. Flight 915 remained at airspeeds ranging from 140 KTS to 160 KTS during the descent and final approach segments until he performed the in range flow and checklist approximately 10 miles south of the field. ATC instructed the pilot to follow a Learjet which he had acquired visually verifying that the landing gear was down and lcoked and began slowing the airplane down to 105 KTS for flap extension on short final. He stated that he intended to land slightly long in order to reduce taxi time on the runway as he was aware of other aircraft cleared to land behind him. At approximately one half mile from touchdown, he extended the flaps to 20 degrees and then to thirty degrees and again visually verified the green light for the gear down and locked as well as one wheel visible out the left side window. Due to a pause in a wing gust, he stated that the flare and touchdown was a little short of where he intended to touchdown, he extended the flaps to 20 degrees and then to thirty degrees and again visually verified the green light for the gear down and locked as well as one wheel visible out the left side window. Due to a pause in a wind gust, he stated that the flare and touchdown was a little short of where he intended to touchdown, (about 500 feet beyond the touchdown zone 2C) but was able to make a smooth flare and gentle nose high touchdown straight down the runway on the centerline. The pilot stated that he continued holding full backpressure on the yoke for maximum aerodynamic braking but found it unnecessary to apply wheel brakes as he had landed short of the intended point on the runway. He stated that had planned on taking the high-speed taxiway S3 but found that he was going slow enough to instead take taxiway n and clear the runway in order to allow other arrivals behind him. He taxied to the right side of 2C to facilitate a timely turnoff from the runway greater than 90 degrees. As the aircraft approached the turn, the pilot stated that he gently applied the brakes and began turning onto the taxiway. The airplane was responding normally and was not moving very fast (about the speed of a person jogging), there was no indication of anything wrong, and was instructed by ATC to switch to the ground control frequency of 121.0. The pilot stated that as he looked over to switch the audio panel to the radio with the ground frequency set in it, he felt the nose drop and the engine immediately stopped. At this point the gear warning horn started going off for the first time. The pilot stated that he remained on the tower frequency and notified them that the nose gear had collapsed so they could immediately issue go around instructions to the planes following in trail. The pilot stated that he then proceeded to shut off everything in the plane and get out. He raised the flaps and shutoff all equipment in order to evacuate the plane safely and prevent any fire hazard.