Whilst surfing another aviation forum I came across this link:

http://streaming.scmp.com/aircrash/C...ne_crash1f.avi

Which apparently has only just been released and shows the horrific last moments of the MD-11 which crashed in a typhoon at Hong Kong in August 1999.

As a relative layman what amazed me about this video is that the final stages of the approach did not look unduly out of the ordinary. Yes there was a small amount of bufetting but compared to some footage I have seen (various Kai Tak, 321 at Lisbon) the aircraft looked under control. I cannot fathom what actually caused such a catastrophic end?

This is amazing and scary, everything looks OK until the last seconds!!!

Hell - Whatever caused that to happen - anyone know ?

Dont recall much about the incident, any links available to the accident report ? Or can anyone tell the story ?

Shocking footage.

When you click on it frame by frame the first flash of fire comes from the right inboard wing around the number three engine. It grows from there. Anyone know what happened?

Yes everything looks OK apart from the rain, the wind, its dark etc etc.....Why was he landing in such conditions anyway???

As a private pilot I would be on the ground somewhere else waiting....why oh why does "get home itis" appear so prevelent in commercial aviation....Lisbon A321 should have hit the toga button ages before he did....Singapore 747 in Taipei....should have been at the gate sipping coffee.

Just my thoughts...but would be interested to here the views of the professional community.

Indeed, amazing footage.

I gather wind sheer caused the crash, but even looking at the
footage, while you see the wing dip suddenly, it has corrected
before the fireball?

Did it hit something on landing or was it just a delay after the
wing hit the ground before the fuel ignited?

The reason for asking was I was onboard a Pan Am 747 that
suffered an engine fire late on finals in to JFK in 1989.

We too experienced a dramatic downward pitch of wing just
feet off the runway, but the crew landed the plane safely with
seemingly no other effects other than extreme braking and cabin
projectiles.

I assumed the braking was due to the engine not being able to
be placed in reverse thrust?

9.09MB download

Only a guess as I don't have the report is that they may have struck the starboard engine on the runway due windshear, or did they have a starboard ubdercarriage failure? Guessing of course without the report information.

Cheers

From the evidence contained within the video (and only from that) I can draw no conclusion other than it is a horrendous design fault with the aircraft - IMHO there is no evidence of pilot error at all here. (please feel free to disagree!)

Wind shear causing the aircraft to hit to hard and forced the gear through the wings. Isn't this the same plane that the next day there were pics of it upside down and burned in the middle of two runways with another MD11 taxiing by from the same airline and the joke is the Stew telling the PAX to look out...........

From Flight for 9 September (subscription access):-The dispute is apparently between "pilot error" (investigators) and "windshear" (airline). Because of this, the investigation report has not yet been published. No doubt there's a lot more information than this video.

One thing is clear from the video, though. It seems amazing that most of the occupants survived this, and that there were only three fatalities.

As I recall eventually it was proven that the RH strut sheared on touchdown as a result of not having been (correctly) inspected after several previous hard landings in its recent history. This relatively normal one was the final straw.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/1999/990822-0.htm

Thanks for that link. Amazing more people were not injured.

There was a video of this aircraft descending through approx 1000ft on the ILS taken by a member of the public and I saw it on Tv abroad but only once.
It sure scared me!
As a 10 year Tristar Captain to me the gyrations of this MD11 in yaw and pitch were very large and the obvious turbulence was way beyond any I had experianced in 14 years as a Tristar crew member flying into the old and new HKK airports.
The aircraft appeared to me to be about to go out of control.
Please correct me if I am wrong but I was told the Italian Captain was a new hire and had not much experiance in monsoon/storm conditions operateing in/out of the HKK area.
If so I feel really sorry for him and the weather he faced that day.
Seeing that Video on Tv has remained with me for ever.
I feel it should be shown to all pilots expected to operate in the Far East and HKK in particular.
After a series of fatalities in these conditions I feel clear advice now needs to be given that a Crew will be supported if they decide to chuck it all away and divert or indeed not leave the gate for takeoff if they feel the weather conditions too violent and approaching a level beyond their abilities.

Sorry DtA, but I have to disagree. With throttles reduction to idle at 50ft and airspeed decreasing almost 20kt prior to flare a very hard landing was definitely unavoidable. Night landing, poor visibility, MLW, low speed, high sink rate and attitude, crosswind and crab angle are a sequence that can lead to unforeseen results for any heavy jet airplane... Therefore, it's not an 'exclusive' MD11 design fault.

I couldn't help but think that the pics of the aircraft inverted in the infield didn't look like a heavy. However, this picture reminded me that we were talking about a sizeable airframe.

Only three dead out of, what was it, 317? Just amazing.

Dave

I was not there that evening but I do recall that at the time only 25L/07R was operational as 25R/07L was not yet completed.

25L is more prone to windshear especially on a night like that with a typhoon in the area.

I seem to recall that a CX 777 did get in just prior to this accident and was on the taxiway when it saw a fireball heading its way. A quick power up and rapid exit from the taxiiway was initiated earning the skipper a trip to Seattle for the next 777 delivery.

No names but perhaps he might like to recall the events as they unfolded.

The approach looked reasonably stable to me considering the wx and X-wind/gust component but its a pretty blurred video clip.

I understand the Italian captain was exonerated although I am sure it didn't make him feel any better. As an old C&T said after the Ansett nose gear job in Sydney...not a great final entry in the log book.

There but for the Grace of God....

I've watched the clip several times now and it does appear that a violent sink-rate developed from about 50ft - but surely the aircraft should be able to withstand this?

That said, as several contributors have pointed out, the video clip is blury by that point with the poor visibility of the night.

DTR An early post mentioned that, the investigation revealed records showing that the airframe had had two previous hard landings and these had not been properly examined. Consequently, this landing was too much for it and the gear gave way, being thrust up through the wing rupturing cables and lines. Inevitably the No3 pod struck the ground but it was, in reality, already over by then and only a question of how the airframe would react to the natural forces unleashed by the failure of the right main gear. I sit to be corrected.