FedEx MD-11 crashes on landing at Narita, killing both pilots

A FedEx MD-11 en route from Guangzhou to Tokyo Narita crashed yesterday on landing in high winds, cartwheeling on the runway and catching fire, killing the two pilots.

Video of the crash shows the aircraft landing hard, lifting back into the air briefly and then bouncing on its front and then rear ends. The left wing hit the runway, starting a fire as the MD-11 rolled. The crash occurred at 6:50 a.m. and closed the longer of NRT's two runways, forcing Japan Airlines and ANA to cancel at least 40 flights combined.

The Daily Yomiuri reported that the Narita Aviation Weather Service Center issued a wind shear warning for below 500 m. at the time of the accident. It added that nine aircraft landing "just before the accident reported to the control tower that they had experienced wind shears below 600 m. The control tower subsequently relayed this information to the FedEx crew when it granted the plane permission to land. . .The control tower also told the crew that the wind around the runway was blowing from the northwest at 52.2 km. per hr., with maximum wind speeds reaching 64.8 km. per hr." Japan's Transport Ministry said it launched an investigation and conceded that wind shear was a possible cause.

The crash was nearly identical to two previous landing accidents involving MD-11s, one a Mandarin Airlines aircraft at Hong Kong in 1999 and the other a FedEx aircraft in Newark in 1997. In both cases, the MD-11s cartwheeled after unstable touchdowns.

The 1997 FedEx crash was attributed to the captain's "overcontrol of the aircraft during the landing and his failure to execute a go-around from a destabilized flare," according to the US National Transportation Safety Board. In that accident the captain and copilot survived.

FedEx said the pilots who died in Sunday's crash were Capt. Kevin Mosley, 54, who had 12,800 total career flight hr., and First Officer Anthony Pino, 49, who had 6,300 hr. "This loss pains all of us at FedEx," Chairman, President and CEO Frederick Smith said. "We will continue to work closely with the applicable local authorities and the NTSB as we seek to determine the cause of this tragic accident."

According to Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, the destroyed MD-11, powered by three PW4460 engines, first flew in 1993.