20160301000429A

On March 1, 2016 the pilot of N1982F was on a routine flight from marathon, Florida to saint Simons Island, Georgia with two additional persons on board. The aircraft was performing a normal landing on runway 16 when it was reported that the nose gear had collapsed shortly after touch down. The aircraft sustained substantial damage with no injuries reported.

On March 2, 2016 an inspector from the atlanta FSDO was dispatched to conduct an investigation as to the cause of the nose landing gear collapsing during landing. Upon arrival to the airport the aircraft had been moved to a ?t? Hanger owned and operated by the local airport FBO, at the discretion of the atlanta FSDO. The initial assessment of the aircraft revealed that the engine props had come apart on landing and displayed the characteristics normally associated with an aircraft making power. There was substantial damage to the under nose section of the fuselage with the nose landing gear and doors completely crushed by the impact. Further investigation showed additional structural damage to the engine firewall and also the tops of the wing displayed rippling and buckling characteristics associated with nose end impact.

An examination of the runway showed that at approximately 1000 feet from the end of the runway, you begin to see a dozen witness marks on the ground caused by the main propeller striking. These witness marks all of a sudden stop and pick back up at about another 1000 feet down the runway, at which time you begin to see more propeller strikes and what appears to be where the nose gear had collapsed causing scraping on the runway from the metal underneath the nose area. This scraping effect continues for about 15 yards and once again stops all of a sudden, and finally picks back up approximately 30 yards down the runway and continues until the final resting place.

The pilot of the aircraft stated that he had just purchased the aircraft on 02/05/2016 and was returning from a fishing trip from marathon, Florida to his home base of saint Simons Island, Georgia. At the time of this accident the pilot had accumulated 4527 hours of total flight time and 15 hours in this new aircraft. On this particular day his initial landing had been interrupted when two army helicopters announced their intention to land on runway 4. Even though the pilot was landing on runway 16 and the helicopters had communicated that they were out of the way, the pilot decided to do a 360 degree go around. On the second landing attempt the pilot stated that all landing procedures were normal but as he approached runway 16 the wind gusts appeared to get stronger making it difficult to keep the wings level. The aircraft touched down on its main gear and as he allowed the nose gear to touch down he heard a popping noise which made it difficult to control the nose of the aircraft. The nose of the aircraft continued to go further down as the propeller began to strike the asphalt and the aircraft slid on its nose to its resting place. Once the aircraft came to rest he initiated emergency evacuation procedures and exited the aircraft with no injuries on board.

On March 16, 2016 an inspector from the atlanta FSDO travelled back to saint Simons Island, Georgia at the request of NTSB. An accident investigator from Piper aircraft arrived on scene to provide additional guidance and expertise. The Piper aircraft investigator?s investigation revealed that the nose landing gear had been fully extended on touchdown based on the length of nose landing gear actuator extension of 6.8 inches. Further investigation showed that the landing gear assembly had completely sheared off the aircraft and the end of the actuator extension had snapped off where it attached to the landing gear. This type of damage is normally associated with a high impact force.

A review of the maintenance records was conducted and it showed no previous landing gear issues or concerns during the last annual insp