ANC03LA065

The airline transport pilot was landing a tricycle gear airplane on a remote, gravel and dirt airstrip. During the landing roll, the nose wheel landing gear encountered soft terrain, and the nose landing gear collapsed, resulting in structural damage to the fuselage. The pilot reported that the landing surface was softer than he had anticipated. The FAA Alaska Supplement and Airport Directory, contains the following information for the airstrip: Airport Remarks---Unattended. Runway conditions not monitored, recommend visual inspection prior to landing. Runway 02-20 is soft in spring, surface irregular and rutted.

On June 9, 2003, about 1300 Alaska daylight time, a Cessna 402B airplane, N710WS, sustained substantial damage when its nose landing gear collapsed during the landing roll at the Telida airstrip, Telida, Alaska. The Title 14, CFR Part 91 cross-country flight operated in visual meteorological conditions, and a VFR flight plan was in effect. The airline transport certificated pilot and the three passengers were not injured. The flight was operated by Kingdom Support Services, Inc., in support of its missionary organization. The flight departed Minchumina, Alaska, about 1230, and was en route to Fairbanks, Alaska, with an intermediate stop at Telida.

The NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC) had telephone conversations with the pilot on June 10 and June 30. The pilot related during the initial conversation that he was landing on runway 02 at the Telida airstrip, which is 1,900 feet long and composed of dirt and sand. The pilot said that the runway surface was softer than he anticipated, and the nose landing gear collapsed when the nose wheel encountered a soft spot. He said he was unsure of the amount of the damage to the airplane, but it appeared to be confined to the radome, propellers, and nose landing gear. He said he would call the IIC as soon as a mechanic had an opportunity to assess the damage.

On June 30, the pilot telephoned the IIC, and provided several digital photographs of the airplane taken at the Telida airstrip by an aviation mechanic. The photographs disclosed structural damage to the underside of the fuselage structure in front of the nose landing gear wheel well, and aft of the radome.

The FAA Alaska Supplement and Airport Directory, contains the following information for the Telida airstrip:

Airport Remarks---Unattended. Runway conditions not monitored, recommend visual inspection prior to landing. Runway 02-20 is soft in spring, surface irregular and rutted.