FedEx aircraft crash in Narita

[Ultergra]

Just saw on the news the footage of this accident that happened in Narita today... Just incredible the amount they bounced before slamming back onto the deck... Anyone know how this will affect flights into and out of Narita? Single runway for a few days/weeks?


Jet bursts into flames at Tokyo airport (http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/792040/jet-bursts-into-flames-at-tokyo-airport)

[Ultergra]

The video can be seen on Youtube....

YouTube - ??????????????2009.03.23??Landing accident (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6cMK9LUnzI)

[Fantome]

Just an aside . . .. please post the guts of a news release straight into your post to save some people's time.

10:14 AEST Mon Mar 23 2009
14 minutes ago

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http://images.ninemsn.com.au/resizer.aspx?url=http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/2009/world/2303_narita_sp.jpg&width=310
The wreckage of the plane sits on the tarmac.



A cargo plane has crash landed in strong winds at Tokyo's international airport, bursting into a ball of flames.
A pilot and co-pilot were aboard but their safety could not immediately be confirmed.
"A cargo plane crash landed at the airport, but we have not had any information of casualties," a local police official said.
The plane was on a regular flight from Guangzhou, China. It landed under strong winds early today, appearing to bounce and burst into flames as it skidded to a halt. Fire trucks were trying to put out the flames more than half an hour after the crash.
The plane was an MD-11, according to Japan's Kyodo News.

[aussie027]

2 crew only on board, both were killed.:{
They may have survived if the aircraft hadn't flipped over on its back.
Tragic :{

[farrari]

The MD11 has been in similar accidents before, any one who has time on them throw some light re this and are they a hard aircraft to land in certain conditions and if so why.

[MonsterC01]

Condolances to the families of the crew, it must be devastating enough without having such a graphic video of their last moments to have to deal with.

I've been flying the MD-11 for the last few years, and have found it to be a fantastic aircraft to operate. A real pilots aircraft! That said if it has one fault it is that it's not the easiest aircraft to land. As one of my sim instructors said during my initial training, " it's not hard to land, it just lands hard!"

There are a number of reason's for this, firstly the MD-11 is essentially a stretched DC-10 with winglets a 2 crew cockpit and a few other nips and tucks here and there. The reason this is a significant factor is that the designers increased the operating weight and length of the aircraft without re-enginnering the wing and rudder of the aircraft. As a result the aircraft has very sluggish roll and yaw response to control inputs at low speeds. ie during short finals and landing.

The second significant factor that effects the aircrafts landing performance is speed. In order to compensate for the MD-11 higher operating weight and reduced rudder authority approach speeds can be substantially higher than other commercial jets. This is owing to the higher Vmca of the MD. For example the Vapp speed for the MD-11 at max landing weight (213.8T) is around 168 kts give or take 1-2 kts. This is increased further if allowances for high winds or steady state gusts are factored in. As a consequence your sink rate on a heavy approach is usually a few hundred feet a min higher than most other aircraft.

The final factor effecting the landing is the centre gear. Unlike the body gear on a 747, which is quite forgiving, the centre gear on the MD-11 is primarily designed to support the MD-11's increased ramp weight. It's position at fuselage centre, slightly aft of the main gear has a significant impact on the landing charactoristics of the aircraft. For this reason it is imperative that the pilot doesn't continue to flare the aircraft when the RA callout is 10ft. Even if the aircraft is not in the desired landing attitude. If the pilot continues to apply back presure on the control column past this point, it drives the centre gear onto the runway, which creates a large up force on the tail section of the aircraft, which in turn drives the nose gear on and creates a bounce.

These are some of the factors that come into play when trying to poll the MD-11 onto the black stuff. And it's this combination of factors that ensure's that no two landing's in the MD are ever the same.

[Green gorilla]

Relaxed longitudinal stability (ie aft cg)along with a smaller horizontal tail for fuel economy .Causing the hard touchdowns and bouncing coupled with landing gear and wing box that might not be strong enough causing the wing seperation.