The MD-11 was designed with a smaller horizontal stabilizer than other airliners. That, plus the shifting of its center of gravity further aft, all to reduce drag and thus fuel burn, causes it to be unusually light on the controls. That design, known as “relaxed stability,” is common to fighter planes but is not normally found in the pitch axis of a civilian airliner. It makes it more likely that the pilot will overcontrol during an upset recovery.
1994, November 4. A Fed Ex MD-11 freighter made a hard landing, and a tail strike at the Anchorage, Alaska airport. After selecting 50 degrees of flaps the first officer, who was flying the plane, was not able to stabilize the approach in the pitch mode. The attitude of the plane varied approximately 2 degrees with corresponding elevator position changes. The captain, because of the high sink rate, grabbed the yoke and pulled back. The plane landed hard, bounced, and oscillated at least three times, reaching a maximum pitch up attitude of 12.3 degrees. The tail struck the runway during the oscillations. This was also the plane that crashed at Newark in 1997.
1996, May 16. A Fed Ex MD-11 freighter encountered wake turbulence from a preceding 747 as it was landing at the Anchorage, Alaska airport and suffered substantial damage. When the plane entered a high sink rate, the captain tried to go-around but the lower aft fuselage hit the runway and bounced. The captain discontinued the go-around and the plane bounced two more times, causing substantial damage to the aft pressure bulkhead.
Prior to this accident, Fed Ex did not have formal tailstrike awareness training for its MD-11 pilots. After this accident, however, Fed Ex developed a tail strike awareness training program that included bounced landing recovery in its simulator training. That program limited pitch attitude to 7-1/2 deg for recovery from a bounced landing.
1997, June. Thirteen people were seriously injured when a Japan Airlines MD-11 experienced severe pitch oscillations. One passenger went into a coma and died, 20 months later.
The pilot attempted manual recovery when the autopilot failed to detect the plane was flying too fast after an encounter with wind shear. The pilot’s repeated attempts to stabilize the altitude caused the severe oscillations that injured passengers and crew. The autopilot was blamed for the accident because it contained a programming design defect that commanded it to respond to average velocity calculations instead of actual speeds.
1997, July 31. A Fed Ex MD-11 bounced on landing at Newark airport and then flipped upside down off runway 22 R. The two pilots and three passengers managed to escape before the plane was destroyed by fire. The investigation is focusing on the failure of the right main gear, which allowed the right engine and wing to dig into the ground, flipping the plane over.
Wreckage of the Fed Ex Newark accident, July 31, 1997
There is now some question about the structural strength of the wing box; whether it was strong enough to absorb loads that were well within the spar’s limits. If it wasn’t as strong as it should have been, the next question will concern the same structures on other MD-11s. Are they deficient too, or was it just a defect in the manufacture of that particular one? The same plane had been involved in two other hard landing incidents, prior to this accident. They are also examining the possibility of the pilot overcontrolling as he tried to correct after the first bounce.
It is obvious that Michael Crichton’s 1996 novel, AIRFRAME, is based on the checkered history of the MD-11, and in particular, on the deficient designs of its slats and pitch stability systems. Crichton’s N-22 (his fictitious name for the MD-11) comes out as a stellar airplane that suffers only from bad press. Likewise for the DC-10. His discussion of the misfortunes of the DC-10 (beginning on page 181, in the paperback edition) is greatly distorted, chiefly by what he leaves out of the discussion. In my view, the DC-10 is one of the worst designed airplanes to ever come down the pike and the MD-11 is not much better.
1998, September 2. A Swissair MD-11 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, with the loss of all 229 onboard, after the pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. That investigation is ongoing and they now have evidence of a fire fore and aft of the cockpit bulkhead. Recovered parts, from the cockpit area, included a portion of the sheepskin cover from the F/O’s seat, an armrest, air filter, melted aluminum, electrical wires with melted copper, charred or missing wire insulation, and smaller parts that were discolored by heat. Those parts are undergoing analysis to determine the temperature levels and heated gases to which they were exposed, according to the TSB (Transportation Safety Board of Canada). That accident has prompted many questions received at this web site.
1999, August 22. A China Airlines MD-11 crashed while landing at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport, during a rain storm with strong, gusting crosswinds. The right gear struck the runway very hard and then broke off, allowing the right engine and wing to strike the ground. The right wing then broke off and the plane flipped upside down. That is very similar to the type of damage incurred by the Fed Ex MD-11, when it crashed at Newark. Three of the 315 people on board Flight C1642 were killed. The rest owe their lives to the Hong Kong airport’s fire brigade that put out the fire before it engulfed those trapped in the wreckage. It took almost 3 hours to remove all the survivors.
Failure of the wings, in the area of the fuselage attach points, has called into question the structural integrity of the wing box structure of the MD-11 and is part of the focus of investigation in both accidents.
It was the same plane that was involved in the turbulence accident on Dec. 7, 1992, described above.
1999, October 17. A Fed Ex MD-11 touched down at Subic Bay, in the Philippines and then ran off the end of the runway and sunk in Subic Bay. The plane was a total loss, but the 2 pilots escaped with only minor injuries. The report found the probable cause to be:
The failure of the flight crew to properly address an erroneous airspeed indication during descent and landing, their failure to verify and select the correct airspeed by checking the standby airspeed indicator, and their failure to execute a missed approach. These failures led to an excessive approach and landing speed that resulted in a runway overshoot. Contributing factors to the accident were clogged pitot tube drain holes, the MD-11's insufficient alerting system for airspeed anomalies, and the failure of the SEL ELEV FEEL MAN and SEL FLAP LIM OVR D checklists to refer the crew to the standby airspeed indicator.
Fed Ex, Subic Bay. The pilots were very lucky to escape this accident with their lives. It would have been a much different story if the plane had been packed with 300 passengers.........
2001, November 20. An Eva Air MD-11 made a hard landing at Taipei, Taiwan. The first officer was flying the plane as it hit hard and bounced. The captain immediately took control and initiated a successful go-around. After the second landing, investigation revealed substantial damage to the nose wheel well structure and one of the two nose tires had failed.