Hi,

I don't think it's possible to tell how close the fuel tanks are from the picture. They could be close, or they could be far away. Besides, why would the NLG collapse in an Emergency Stop?? AFAIK, there is no braking on the NLG, so it wouldn't collapse unless it hit something.

There appears to be another plane parked close by, so my guess it that the accident happened in a parking/staging area while the aircraft was parked. It wouldn't be the first time that a ground crewman inadvertantly retracted the LG while attempting to release the parking brake.

John