NTSB Factual Report

On May 7, 2018, about 1139 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 182E single-engine airplane, N3292Y, was substantially damaged while landing at Rocky Mountain Municipal Airport (BJC), Broomfield, Colorado. The commercial pilot sustained minor injuries. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the local personal flight, which departed BJC about 1000.

The pilot reported that after departure he flew to his private grass airstrip and made two uneventful full-stop landings before returning to BJC. He made a normal approach to runway 30L and initially touched down on the main landing gear; however, the airplane immediately swerved to the right upon the nose wheel contacting the runway and nosed over in the grass area alongside the runway.

A witness, who was the pilot of an airplane holding short of runway 30L, reported seeing the airplane on final approach to the runway with its nose wheel rotated about 75° from its normal alignment. The airplane initially touched down on its main landing gear; however, when the nose wheel contacted the runway it did not realign with the runway heading and the airplane immediately swerved to the right. The nose landing gear separated from the airplane about 100 ft into the right swerve. The airplane subsequently departed off the right runway edge and nosed over.

A preliminary examination revealed that the nose landing gear scissor assembly had fractured, which, in turn, allowed the nose wheel to rotate freely on the landing gear strut. The fractured scissor assembly and associated hardware were retained for additional examination at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Materials Laboratory in Washington D.C.