A NetJets Cessna Citation Longitude returned to the runway at Akron-Canton Airport on 18 August with its nose gear still locked in the up position and both pilots unharmed after a carefully managed emergency landing.
The aircraft, registered N803QS and operating as Flight EJA803 from Washington Dulles, approached Ohio with the front landing gear refusing to extend. The two crew members, the only occupants, remained airborne while they worked the emergency checklists and tried every available method to force the gear down. When the attempts failed they committed to landing on Runway 1 shortly before one o’clock local time.
Video recorded from the ground shows the jet settling onto its main wheels first. The pilots held the nose clear of the pavement for several seconds, bleeding speed in the controlled attitude they had trained for, before the forward fuselage settled onto the runway and the aircraft slid to a stop. Airport fire and rescue teams were already in position. The pilots left the aircraft without injury. Damage was confined to the nose section and underside.
Partial gear failures of this kind remain relatively rare. Most gear-up landings involve every leg remaining retracted. When only the nose gear stays up the technique is specific: touch down on the mains, keep the nose elevated as long as control authority and runway length allow, then accept the contact once the aircraft is slow enough to limit structural loads and fire risk. The crew at Akron-Canton executed that sequence cleanly.
The Federal Aviation Administration and Ohio authorities have opened investigations. The mechanical reason the nose gear failed to deploy has not yet been established. Until those findings appear the episode stands as a reminder that procedures and recurrent training still determine outcomes when a single system refuses to cooperate on short final.