After a normal approach, the aircraft failed to respond when the pilot attempted to ‘flare out’ for the landing and it hit the ground in a nose down attitude, first on the nosewheels and then on the mainwheels. It bounced back into the air but did not remain airborne although considerable power was applied. The aircraft hit the ground again nose wheels first, bounced several more times, and the nose gear collapsed. The landing run, in the course of which the aircraft left the runway for some 400 yds. before returning to it, was completed on the main wheels and broken nose gear. It was subsequently established that the aircraft failed to respond to the pilot’s attempt to flare out, because elevator movement was restricted by four water-soaked cleaning cloths, lodged between the port elevator and the tailplane spar, which had frozen solid during the flight. The descent and landing had taken only five minutes and this had not allowed the frozen cloths time to thaw.