Beech 1900
Flight Crew Commercial
Distraction
Ground Excursion Runway; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Evacuated
Airport; Human Factors; Weather
We were on our afternoon flight to an outlying island airport. We were VFR; and the weather when we left was calling three miles; with a high ceiling; and strong winds out of the southeast with gusts into the thirties. We decided to land Runway XX; and on final we saw the airport from about 1.5 miles. The winds were 120 at 27 knots with gusts into the thirties. As we were touching down the visibility decreased due to blowing snow. We touched down in the center of the runway; but almost immediately the airplane began sliding to the right. The right main wheel caught the softer snow on the side of the runway; and the whole plane twisted clockwise; and came to a stop 90 degrees to the runway; pointing northwest. During the rotation; the nose gear collapsed. We secured the plane; and I went back to make sure all the passengers were OK. Nobody was hurt or injured. I've been trying to figure out what we could have done differently. The factors adding up to the event were the strong crosswind; low visibility; and slick runway. Earlier in the day we had landed there and the runway hadn't appeared to be slick. We did have a distraction on approach/descent with Number 1 GPS cutting out; but we were able to use the VOR and the Number 2 GPS. Also on short final I felt like we were less stabilized than normal due to the gusty crosswind; large crab angle; and low visibility. So; with all the negative factors stacked against us; we probably should have decided not to land.
The crosswind component was 25 KTS and the tailwind component 9 KTS. We chose Runway XX to avoid mechanical turbulence associated with terrain south of the airport. We then called the FSS and had them close the runway because our tail was intruding about 5 FT past the lights onto the runway.I have learned from this event that; even if I have experience flying in bad conditions; it doesn't make me invulnerable to losing control when too many negative factors are stacked against me.
A BE1900 flight crew operating into a remote gravel airstrip during strong gusting cross/tailwinds lost control after touchdown and ground looped off the downwind side of the runway; collapsing the nose gear.