Oriental Air Bridge DH8B at Nagasaki on Feb 12th 2014, hard landing

An Oriental Air Bridge de Havilland Dash 8-200, registration JA801B performing a training flight from Nagasaki to Nagasaki (Japan) with captain and two trainee pilots, was performing touch and gos with the intention to conduct six touch and gos. While touching down for the 4th time the aircraft touched down very hard with the nose gear first causing substantial damage to the forward portion of the airframe. The aircraft did not "go" again but rolled out.

Japan's Transportation Safety Board rated the occurrence an accident and opened an investigation, reporting that the aircraft touched down hard on its 4th of six planned touch and gos resulting in damage to the forward fuselage outer panels.

The airline reported that as result of the accident, which left the training captain and two trainee pilots uninjured, two aircraft are out of service causing disruption to their schedule until February 15th (including), at which time the second aircraft is expected to return to service. The airline cooperates with the investigation led by the JTSB.