My instructor always reassured me that even if the engine failed, we could still glide along for a bit and find a strip of something to land on. I'm curious as to why this aircraft landed hard on its nose. What circumstances would lead to this?

From Seattle Times:

Two women died when a small aircraft crashed in a Snohomish County field Saturday afternoon.

The pilot, a 54-year-old from Camano Island, told her husband shortly before the crash that she was losing or had lost power, according to Snohomish County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Rebecca Hover. It was not clear whether the pilot spoke with her husband by cellphone or some other means.

The pilot and her passenger, her 34-year-old niece from Oak Harbor, died at the scene. The Sheriff's Office did not release the women's names. No one else was injured.

The women had planned to fly a short distance, from Arlington Municipal Airport in Snohomish County to Camano Island, where the pilot had an airstrip on her property.

Just before 1 p.m., the experimental fixed-wing aircraft crashed on its nose in a field near the 25700 block of 95th Avenue Northwest just outside Stanwood, Hover said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is leading the investigation.