FedEx MD-10 MEM
FedEx jet skidded on pilot 'check'
NTSB inquiry reveals earlier problems of first officer
By Bartholomew Sullivan
Contact
May 26, 2004
WASHINGTON - Two minutes before a pre-Christmas FedEx flight from Oakland to
Memphis made a hard landing that bucked its right landing gear, the captain
joked to the first officer he was evaluating to "keep it out of the grass."
"I'll do my very best," First Officer Robyn S. Sclair responded, chuckling,
according to a cockpit voice recorder.
But it was not to be. At 12:26 p.m. on December 18, the 358,000-pound MD-10,
battling headwinds after a brief wind shear alert, hit the runway on its
left landing gear first, traveled 58 feet, then landed hard on the right
landing gear.
After rolling about 2,800 feet, the right landing gear collapsed, the plane
skidded off the runway and into the grass, and caught fire. Of the two crew
and five passengers, two received minor injuries, including Sclair, who had
rope burns from a cockpit escape.
While the accident remains under investigation, and no conclusions or
recommendations have been issued, the National Transportation Safety Board
released factual findings on the accident on Tuesday. They indicate that at
the time of the accident, Sclair was undergoing a company-mandated multi-leg
"line check," or supervised evaluation, after deviating from an assigned
altitude over England a month earlier.
The report reveals that Sclair, with FedEx since 1996, had received two
previous unsatisfactory proficiency ratings on MD-11s in 1999 and 2001, but
had received additional training and received satisfactory ratings both
times.
Interviews the NTSB did with an unidentified FedEx pilot indicated that she
had been late to work three out of 10 times in August and had received an
advisory letter from company officials on Dec. 8 warning against tardiness.
In 1994, an unidentified previous employer indicated unsatisfactory
proficiency ratings that year were the result of Sclair's "generally poor
airmanship"
Efforts to reach both Sclair and Capt. Richard W. Redditt through the Air
Line Pilots Association were unsuccessful Tuesday. Both are on paid leave
and are not flying pending the outcome of the investigation and an internal
company probe, said FedEx spokesman Kristin S. Krause.
No damage cost estimates are available, Krause said.
The cockpit voice recorder also indicates that Redditt told an unidentified
jumpseat passenger before the flight that Sclair had been coughing "like
crazy" on previous legs of the Memphis-Indianapolis-Oakland flight and that
he thought she might have pneumonia.
In response to a garbled comment from the jumpseater, Redditt adds: "I think
she would have if it hadn't been so much scrutiny on this line check." The
recording picks up constant coughing and throat-clearing from Sclair as the
plane descends over Arkansas into Memphis.
"Whatever happens today, I want to see a stable approach at 1,000 feet,"
Redditt tells Sclair as she begins the descent. If the plane isn't stable,
she's to "go around" again, he says. "No problem there," she answers.
It was just a few days before Christmas and it was a blustery, gusty day as
Flight 647 descended over Gilmore, Ark. An automated warning system alerted
the crew to wind shear conditions at about 1,900 feet. But before it touched
down, the plane appeared to passengers and Redditt to be properly oriented.
On the ground, after the landing gear collapsed, the right wing caught fire
and the plane had to be evacuated. When the inflatable escape slide was
deployed, however, wind gusts blew it under the fuselage. The crew and five
passengers had to escape through cockpit windows. Besides Sclair's rope
burns, another passenger fell, injuring a shoulder.
Before escaping, an amateur video obtained by the NTSB showed, those inside
threw personal belongings, including Christmas presents, from the plane. In
the wake of the accident, FedEx issued a directive that crews were to exit
as expeditiously as possible in an emergency and not take unnecessary risks
to salvage personal baggage.
The accident also resulted in a Federal Aviation Administration advisory.
Because the airport rescue crews expected only three crew, total, and seven
people escaped the flight, the FAA recommended cargo operators provide
personnel manifests for all incoming flights.