Crash: Fedex MD11 at Tokyo on Mar 23rd 2009, turned on its back while landing in gusty winds
Last updated Tuesday, Mar 24th 2009 08:27Z
Cleaning up after the crash
A Fedex McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter, registration N526FE performing flight FX-80 from Guangzhou to Tokyo Narita (Japan) with 2 crew, caught a gust while landing at Tokyo's Narita airport, rolled inverted, veered off the runway and burst into flames while landing on runway 34L at 06:50 local (Mar 22nd 21:50Z). The 2 crew on board perished in the crash.
Weather services in Japan reported gusts up to 40 knots at the time of the accident.
The airplane became unstable during the flare, bounced off the runway, touched down a second time with the nose gear first, rolled to its left, the left wing impacted ground and separated, the airplane burst into flames before the airplane rolled on its back and came to a stop.
Emergency services needed two hours to extinguish the blaze. Although the fire brigades were able to keep the fire away from the cockpit, the crew could not be saved. The impact forces as well as the weight of debris in the cockpit had already killed the crew.
Narita's main runway 34L/16R (4000 meters/13100 feet in length) was closed for more than 26 hours after the accident and reopened on Tuesday 09:00 local (00:00Z). The runway surface was repaired, the wreckage was cut and removed to a hangar.
Serious disruptions of air traffic were caused by the loss of the main runway, as the secondary runway 16L/34R is only 2180 meters/7100 feet in length disabling many long distance aircraft to land or depart. More than 40 airlines needed to divert their arriving flights to as far as Osaka, several hundred flights had to be cancelled.
The JTSB reported, that the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have both been recovered, data analysis has started. The nose gear tires were found separated from the wheels supposedly departing the rims when the airplane touched down the second time with the nose gear first, the left wing broke off at the wing root at impact with the runway. The NTSB (USA) is joining the investigation with a go-team.
On Tuesday the JTSB reported, that 9 flights had landed preceding the Fedex MD-11 with no trouble. However, 7 of those 9 crews reported wind shear between 1800 feet and the runway elevation, the first report was issued at 06:15 local. The tower noticed windspeed changes of up to 20 knots associated with those reports. The Fedex flight landed while the same wind conditions existed as for those 7 flights.
Update:
updated 3:25 p.m. PT, Mon., March. 23, 2009
TOKYO - Wind shear may have caused the crash of a FedEx jet that cartwheeled on the runway at Tokyo's main international airport and burst into a fireball, investigators said Monday, but experts noted that the model was notoriously difficult to land.
The American pilot and co-pilot — the only two people on board — were killed when the MD-11 cargo plane bounced on its landing at Tokyo's Narita international airport, slammed onto the runway and tipped onto its side before exploding into flames.
Kazuhito Tanakajima, an aviation safety official at the Transport Ministry, said the crash may have been the result of "wind shear," sudden changes in wind that can lift or smash an aircraft into the ground during landing.
But Tanakajima said the wind speed alone was not necessarily dangerous. He said there was headwind of about 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour), and a crosswind of about 7 miles per hour.
Sudden changes in wind
Wind shear is a sudden change in the speed and direction of the wind, and happens relatively frequently. But a dangerous localized form — called a microburst — can cause planes to lose airspeed suddenly and or lift abruptly if a headwind suddenly changes to a tail wind during takeoff or landing, said Patrick Smith, a Boston based pilot and aviation analyst.
During the 1970s and 1980s, microbursts were blamed for a number of aviation disasters in the United States that helped usher in a new generation of wind shear detection technology.
Smith described a wind speed of 45 mph as unusually powerful.
"It is possible that shears from these gusts, together with known instability issues of the MD-11, led to the accident."
He said the aircraft is unusually sensitive on the controls but the downside is a tendency for pilots to over-control during a bounced or otherwise unstable landing, which in severe cases can lead to a total loss of control.
The MD-11 has had no fatal crashes since 1999 and was largely retired from passenger service because of the introduction of more economical planes.
Tomoki Kuwano, a former Japan Airlines pilot and aviation expert, said the MD-11 can be hard to land.
"In the past, the MD-11 has a record of landing failure," he said. "And when that happens it often flips over."
Other crashes involving MD-11s
In 1999, an MD-11 flipped over and burst into flames, killing three people during a crash landing in a storm in Hong Kong. And in 1997 one of the planes landed hard, flipped and caught fire while landing in Newark, N.J.
Monday's was the first deadly crash at Narita — the main air hub for international flights to Tokyo — since the airport opened in 1978. According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, pilot Kevin Kyle Mosley, 54, of Hillsboro, Ore., and co-pilot Anthony Stephen Pino, 49, of San Antonio, Texas — were killed as they landed the flight from Guangzhou, China.
FedEx, which just last month opened its Asian hub in Guangzhou, said it was investigating the cause of the accident.
"We will continue to work closely with the applicable authorities as we seek to determine the cause for this tragic incident," the company said in a statement.
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Metars:
RJAA 222238Z 30019G32KT 9999 FEW030 12/M03 Q1002 WS R34R RMK 1CU030 A2959
RJAA 222230Z 30018KT 9999 FEW030 12/M03 Q1001 WS R34R TEMPO 31020G30KT RMK 1CU030 A2959 2218 MOD TURB BLW 500FT ON FNA RWY34R B767
RJAA 222200Z 31026G40KT 9999 FEW020 12/M02 Q1001 NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2957 P/RR
RJAA 222130Z 32026G40KT 9999 FEW020 12/M02 Q0999 WS R34L NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2952P/RR
RJAA 222108Z 31025G35KT 9999 FEW020 12/M01 Q0998 RMK 1CU020 A2949
RJAA 222100Z 30013G28KT 260V330 9999 FEW020 13/M01 Q0998 NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2948
RJAA 222041Z 26012KT 210V300 9999 FEW020 12/02 Q0998 RMK 1CU020 A2948
RJAA 222033Z 32016G26KT 9999 FEW020 11/03 Q0998 RMK 1CU020 A2947
RJAA 222030Z 32017KT 9999 FEW020 12/02 Q0998 NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2948
RJAA 222000Z 33012KT 9999 FEW020 11/05 Q0997 NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2946
RJAA 221930Z 32012KT 9999 FEW020 13/06 Q0997 NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2944
RJAA 221900Z 31009KT CAVOK 13/08 Q0996 NOSIG RMK A2941
An Airport Surveillance Camera caught the landing and crash:
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