Originally Posted by
tdracer
I remember when that MD-80 landing occurred - I worked with a couple people who had previously worked at Douglas/MacDac, and still knew people there. Supposedly, after the tail came off, they rushed the aircraft into to a hangar and closed the door before anyone could get any photos. Didn't work, the next weeks Av Week cover photo was a beautiful shot from about 5 o'clock showing the missing tail and various cables and wiring dangling from the rear bulkhead
If I recall correctly, it was an FAA pilot flying and it was intended to be a 'high sink rate' landing - the target sink rate being something like 6 ft./sec., actual sink rate was about twice that
That's not how I remembered it, so I looked it up to be sure. The MD pilot was in the left seat and was flying the airplane when this event occurred. Report number NTSB-AAR-82-2, page 2. The 720 fpm sink rate in the final descent was as intended, but he was supposed to flare to an acceptable touchdown sink rate and apparently failed to initiate an aggressive enough pitch up to reduce the descent rate before touchdown.