An MD-11 operated by Fed Ex Express crashed and burst into flames during landing at Narita International in Tokyo, Japan. The pilot and copilot of Fed Ex Flight 80 were killed in the accident according to a CNN report. The video shows the airplane bouncing twice and rolling left before landing inverted next to the runway.
CNN suggests that wind may have been a factor as winds were reported between 30 to 50 miles per hour at the time of the accident.
Earlier this year a Fed Ex ATR-42 operated by Empire Airways crashed after landing short of the touchdown zone on January 27, 2009.
It looks as though the nose came down hard, leading to a bounce. The airplane pitched down aggressively, leading to a nose-first landing, followed by a second bounce. The airplane then rolled left into the ground.
With the ditching of US Airways 1549 and crash Colgan flight 3407, this is turning into a rough year for aviation. Be careful up there, and fly safe.
Wow. Very sad. This is not going to be a good year for plane crashes.
Agreed.
Hi, very nice post. I have been wonder’n bout this issue,so thanks for posting
This isn’t the first MD-11 to do the ‘ol bounce and roll either. There are a few inherit design flaws in the MD-11 that make it susceptible in a crosswind landing (to name one, the tail engine is set back far in the housing making it hard for the intake to draw air).
They may have just plain ran out of time, but as soon as an MD-11 makes a bounce like that, it should be power-up and nose-up time.
Yeah, from what I understand the DC-10 and MD-11 are quite unforgiving on a bounced landing. It’s quite sobering to see how things go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds like that.