I have investigated the MD-11 for some time and come to the following conclusions. McDonnell-Douglas attempted to revive their fortunes on the cheap by stretching and repowering the DC-10, rather than starting with a clean sheet. They were not willing to design a new wing, with the result that the MD-11 has the highest wing loading and the highest landing/takeoff speeds of any airliner (except Concorde). Also, since they were reusing the DC-10 wing they tried to improve the efficiency by moving the CG aft so it would require a smaller horizontal stabilizer, and tried to compensate for the reduced stability via software. Also, the outer main gear struts mount under the main wing spar instead of behind them (which I believe every other airliner except for the DC-10 does) which means that when the plane lands excessively hard on one gear the wing spar tends to break instead of the gear shearing off. This results in the plane rolling on its back and catching fire; this has happened three times now to the MD-11, and to the best of my knowledge has NEVER happened to any other airliner. It also has had several high speed upsets, with at least one resulting in fatalities. I have never flown an airliner (I am a private pilot) but from what I have read from pilots who have flown it it is much more difficult to fly than any other airliner, especially on landing and takeoff. I believe that there is a reason why Boeing, Douglas, Lockheed, Airbus, and every other transport builder came to roughly the same conclusion as to how much stability was required; my suspicion is that McDonnell, from their experience with fighters, thought they could use some of it to cut a corner on the MD-11 and get away with less. I think that the accident statistics say that it was a poor choice. Whether or not this latest accident had anything to do with the unusual handling characteristics of the MD-11 is completely unclear at this point; we will have to wait to see what the investigation uncovers. But as to the string of accidents on the MD-11 officially ascribed to "pilot error;" I put it that since pilots seem to be able to fly all other jetliners day in and day out without committing these same errors, either the MD-11 is much more difficult to fly than any other jetliner, or it attracts far more than its share of incompetent pilots. I think the former is far more likely.