A CE560's nose wheel broke away from the aircraft as it taxied for takeoff.

Attributes
ACN	969483
Time
Date	201109
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Citation V/Ultra/Encore (C560)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nose Gear Wheel
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

Narrative:

While taxiing out for an operational check flight; directional control became difficult. Pilot flying (PF) applied brakes to bring aircraft to stop. Meanwhile; the nose wheel broke away from the front forks and departed aircraft; coming to rest in grass along taxiway. Aircraft was shutdown by PF; while non-flying pilot contacted ground control and advised of the situation. PF contacted the company and a mechanic responded to incident site. He and other maintenance personnel diagnosed the situation as a seized wheel bearing. The aircraft was raised by the tail by maintenance personnel so that a tug could be positioned under the front wheel fork and subsequently towed. I would suggest having the wheel bearings inspected on aircraft which sit for extended periods of time prior to aircraft movement.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CE560's nose wheel broke away from the aircraft as it taxied for takeoff.

Narrative: While taxiing out for an operational check flight; directional control became difficult. Pilot flying (PF) applied brakes to bring aircraft to stop. Meanwhile; the nose wheel broke away from the front forks and departed aircraft; coming to rest in grass along taxiway. Aircraft was shutdown by PF; while non-flying pilot contacted Ground Control and advised of the situation. PF contacted the company and a Mechanic responded to incident site. He and other Maintenance personnel diagnosed the situation as a seized wheel bearing. The aircraft was raised by the tail by Maintenance personnel so that a tug could be positioned under the front wheel fork and subsequently towed. I would suggest having the wheel bearings inspected on aircraft which sit for extended periods of time prior to aircraft movement.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.