MD 80 hard landing
 

Someone sent me a video clip of an MD80 landing with a very high rate of descent. The entire tail section breaks off on touchdown, and the fuselage fractures just ahead of the wing (it bends severly on touchdown and it's amazing it doesn't break in half). The mainn gears appear to survive, but the nosewheel comes off.

Any one know any details (It's a poor quality image - can't make out the airline).

SSD

Probably JAS - Japan Air Systems - recently acquired by JAL - Japan Air Lines.
JAS have recently had a series of incidents and accidents that grounded their entire MD fleet for reasons ranging from broken main gear to (rear mounted) engine problems, thereby covering all of the above.

It is something of a "Secret Society" network in aviation in The Land of the Risen Sun, but occasionally the West gets a peek behind the mask of the geisha!

Shaggy,

If its the one I'm thinking of its an MD test flight, during certification.

Read somewhere that the a/c was repaired and flew again - doubt it though... :ok:

Do you have a web address where this can be viewed?

BTW, INCOMING!!

SSD

It was indeed the MD80 during testing. A flapless approach with an FAA certifying pilot at the controls!! The aircraft was destined for swissair but not delivered (funnyb old thing!) however, it was repaired and went on to fly further trials.

A second MD80 aslo crashed during landing, the gear collapsing. Air bags and a crane were used to raise it so that the u/c could be lowered. Unfortunately, the crane was not supported properly and toppled, cutting into the top half of the fuselage - result - write off!

I'll try and post a link to the website but it'll have to wait until Monday as the details are on my work PC.

VageR

The intent of this particular flight was to land at a 12fps descent rate, a very hard landing rate for a commercial airliner.


The pilot in command on this flight messed up a bit, and brought it down at a 17fps rate - basically a carrier landing descent rate.


This is almost 3 times the 'normal' landing descent rate of 6fps used by most airlines.


This film-clip is really a testament to the quality of the MDC product.


I'm certain that most airliners would have snapped in half at mid-fuselage at this abusive descent rate.


For only what you see in this film-clip to happen is really amazing....



This plane (Fus. No. 909) was actually rebuilt, and was the primary test aircraft throughout the 80's and early 90's for MDC.



It was a legendary workhorse in the MDC Flight Test stable for many years.



To all you fellow MDC F/T folks,



This film-clip finally made it to digital!



A memory of one of our all-time favorite aircraft....

The film clip has a link on the D & G forum.
Link posted here
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...hreadid=117923

Actually carrier landings only look brutal. The sink rate is around 650 fpm, but no flare. The brutal part is the deceleration.

:cool:

Thanks guys. Glad it was test and not a pax flight. Sore backs all round and a bit draughty in the back rows as well:)

SSD

I'm not a pilot so confess to being completely ignorant about this sort of thing, but if they had any technicians sitting in the back to monitor things etc I imagine it would have been quite smelly as well.... :eek:

Was this the same a/c used to flight test the UHB fan engine? I saw it fly at Farnborough in 1988.

909 MD-81 JT8D-217 10/18/79 (IASG) N560MD N980DC [MDC/UHB DEMO][SCRAPPED @ SHERMAN-GRAYSON, TEXAS 1994]

While ship 909 was repaired after this landing accident at EDW, it was never used to fly revenue passengers for any airline. MDC kept it and it was later re-registered as N560MD and use as a demonstrator for their UHB concept.

BTW..

http://amelia.db.erau.edu/reports/ntsb/aar/AAR82-02.pdf

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze6kuhd/MD-80.mpg

If that last link above doesn't work, I'm told the clip is also on www.jetthrust.com somewhere,,,

Yikes!! I've seen video of MDC's tail strike testing, some really hair-raising stuff, but this one takes the whole gateau!

Some 20 years ago a similar thing occurred with a DC9-30 of
Garuda at the (old0 Jakarta-Kemayoran airport.

Haven't seen the video but doesn't the MD 80 have a jettisonable tail cone which is part of the rear emergency exit system? Apparently quite a few of these have come adrift after hard landings!

Yep, tailcones have come off, like this guy...

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/016973/M/

...but in the video in question, the break occurred just before the aft end of the engines, everything aft of that (vert/horz stabs, tailcone) was last seen skipping down the runway..

Lovely video..

HB-INB
 

HB-INB
The MD-80 which broke its back during testing then suffered the indignity of having the crane which was supposed to be raising it fall on the fuselage:

That aircraft was indeed repaired and delivered to Swissair. I have flown it. Registration as in the title.

Check out the video

Flaps are extended!

OK let's have some fun now. Just imagine it was you on a pax flight! What would have been your post landing PA to the pax?

...the company hopes that all you ladies will enjoy your new fur collars.

Unbelieveable, the video should have been used as an advertisment for aircraft crash worthiness. Like a survival capsule. Think airbus can do that?