Two Plane Crashes Today (Sunday 3/22/09)

[moose135]

CNN is reporting two separate plane crashes today. In Butte, MT, a Pilatus PC-12 crashed while attempting to land. FAA is reporting 17 dead. In Tokyo, a FedEx MD-11 crashed while landing. Video of the crash is on a Japanese website:
http://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye4089545.html

It looks like it bounced a couple of times on the mains and the nose gear (porpoising), then rolled and the left wing struck the ground. The aircraft burst into flames and rolled over. Initial reports say the crew survived.

[njgtr82]

Wow it looks like they came down hard on the nose gear! I can't believe how it bounced up like that

[USAF Pilot 07]

Wow, amazing video. I hope the crew survived such a crash. It's almost like they never flared to land- I wonder what happened...

[T-Bird76]

Reports are the crew did not make it. Wouldn't be surprised if the nose impact did them in or knocked them out at the least, that was a violent impact.

[LGA777]

In this video from youtube that starts much earlier they originally did flare and land on the mains then make a HUGE bounce, the original video starts after the bounce.



Reminds me a lot of UA 232 at SUX in 1989.

I am AMAZED that multiple video's of the actual accident happening are avilable to the media and hence the public less than 2 hours after the accident. Can anyone ever remember that happening? Scenes from the site and smoldering wreckage yes but the accident actually happing, amazing IMO.

We should all be thankfull this was a freighter, a full passenger MD-11 or similar size wide body and I am afraid we could be talking about 200-300 fatalities I am afraid.

LGA777

[Matt Molnar]

Both crewmembers onboard the FedEx flight are reported dead, according to CNN. :-(

[Delta777LR]

Ron your right this video did reminded me of the cripled UA DC-10 crash in Sioux City just in the way that it crashed. What a shame to see this incident.

[Derf]

There is something REALLY not right here! This video is very Scary, not for this incident but how the aircraft seems to
handle. I really want to see the simulation from the data.

For a long time I have been very concerned with the fact that almost all the MD-11 incidence with high speed runway issues
result in a wing overs. In this video the aircraft lost control as the pilot would never input that much nose down. It was
almost like the elevators were in effective, kind of like the Trident in a stall. I will be very interested in the data to see
what the aircraft did with the inputs given. This will answer all of my questions about the DC-10/MD-11.

[SengaB]

Based on Aviation Saftey.net this aircraft used to be N813DE. It was the only Delta Airlines MD-11 painted into the "Wavey Gravy" Colors.
31L 2002.

Senga

[Delta777LR]

Based on Aviation Saftey.net this aircraft used to be N813DE. I was the only Delta Airlines MD-11 painted into the "Wavey Gravy" Colors.
31L 2002.

Senga

Unbelievable it had to be this aircraft, I just saw a few shots of it on A.net while looking up whos flying MD-11s, thats crazy.

[PhilDernerJr]

The wingover doesn't seem to be the big thing, as I'm sure it was caused by the gear collapsing after a VERY hard "2nd landing".

It's tough to see, but it almost looks as though the mains first touched down and maybe bounced a little, coming back in the air. Then the nose still came down, even though the main gear bounced back up off of the ground. I wonder if the pilot then pulled back on the yoke at this point to prevent the nose from being the only part of the plane contacting the runway, over-correcting, and creating the even bigger bounce next. Almost fully airborne again, but decelerating, the plane came down heavier than it was able to take I'm sure, causing the gear to collapse and roll as seen.

Very sad, and RIP to the crew.

[PhilDernerJr]

It also seems as though fire might not have gotten to the cockpit, but that the cockpit was crushed.

I would like to commend Tokyo's rescue team, for not only responding fast, but for covering much of the body recovery with tarps to protect a more grim scene from the many watching cameras.

[PhilDernerJr]

Another angle:

[cancidas]

wow! looking at parts of the video you just posted philit really does look windy there. look at the portion where the firefighters are crowding around the blue tarp, looks like the were trying to block the wind for someone in the center.


i wanna see the metar for that airport at that time.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Here you go:

METAR RJAA 222300Z 30018G29KT 9999 FEW030 13/M04 Q1002 WS
R34R NOSIG RMK 1CU030 A2960=

SPECI RJAA 222238Z 30019G32KT 9999 FEW030 12/M03 Q1002 WS
R34R RMK 1CU030 A2959=


About a 21 Knot crosswind at the surface using the highest gust reported (32KTS)....