ERA19TA278

The commercial pilot, 10 skydivers, and 1 passenger departed on a skydiving flight. After the skydivers jumped, the pilot and passenger returned to the airport to land. The pilot stated that, during the landing, he encountered a sudden downdraft and the airplane dropped out of the air from about 10 to 15 ft above the runway. The airplane landed hard and the nose landing gear collapsed; the airplane slid to the right side of the runway, crossed the parallel runway, and impacted a tree. Examination of the airplane revealed that the left wing was bent up about 3 ft from the wing tip and the nose landing gear was fracture-separated. The pilot stated that there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Thus, it is likely that the pilot failed to maintain airplane control during the landing, which resulted in a hard landing.

On September 20, 2019, about 1230 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 208B, N895SF, was substantially damaged during a hard landing at Pepperell Airport (26MA), Pepperell, Massachusetts. The commercial pilot and passenger were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the skydiving flight that departed at 1215. The airplane was privately owned and operated under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. According to the pilot, he was flying 10 skydivers and one passenger up to an altitude of 10,500 ft mean sea level. After the skydivers departed the airplane, the pilot returned to the airport and made a normal approach to land on runway 24. When the airplane was about 10-15 ft above the runway, he thought he encountered a sudden downdraft and the airplane just "dropped" out of the air and landed hard on the grass runway. The nose landing gear fractured off as the airplane slid to the right side of the runway and crossed the asphalt parallel runway. The airplane then contacted a small tree on the right wing that spun the airplane around. The left wing then contacted the ground and bent the last three ft of the wing tip up. The pilot stated there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane at the time of the accident. Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector revealed that the left-wing tip was bent up from contact with the ground. The wing spar was bent, and the nose landing gear was fractured off. The single-engine, high-wing airplane was built in 1988, and equipped with a Pratt and Whitney PT6, 675 horsepower engine. The most recent 100-hour inspection was completed on September 5, 2019. At the time of accident, the airframe total time was 18,426.0 hours. The engine total time was 18,240.7 hours. The airplane flew 22.6 hours since the last 100-hour inspection. The pilot held a commercial pilot certificate, with ratings for airplane single-engine land, and airplane multi-engine land. He also held a flight instructor certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine and airplane multi-engine. His most recent FAA second class medical certificate was issued on June 4, 2019. He reported 3,837 total hours of flight experience at the time of the accident. A total of 400 hours were in this make and model.