As reported by Max Trescott (and I’m sure, news outlets as well) a FedEx MD-11 cargo jet crashed at Tokyo’s Narita airport yesterday. Both the pilot and co-pilot were killed during the fiery crash and it was all caught on video. Watch the video below for the dramatic last moments of the plane:
It seems the winds were high at the time though it is not yet known if they were a factor in this disaster. The main problem seems to be a hard bounce on the first touchdown after which the pilots attempted to recover and land again rather than go around. You can see the nose go down and touch the runway first before the fire engulfs it.
Being a student of the art of flying, I am all too familiar with bouncing on landing. Many times after issuing a clearance for landing and seeing me touch down, the CYHM controllers would hear me say “TDS is in the overshoot” (also known as “Going around”). A bounce happens when the rate of descent is high and the plane hits the ground hard enough to … well bounce and start gaining height while the airspeed is decreasing which can lead to a stall, loss of control and subsequent crash.
To recover from a bounce (with enough runway remaining) I was taught to add 200 – 300 RPM, keep parallel to the runway, let the airspeed increase then reduce power and return to landing configuration and land. Of course if there isn’t enough runway remaining, full power, flaps up to 10°, wait for best rate (Vy = 75 kts in a PA28-140), flaps up and climb. Basically take off.
On a normal, “good” landing I was able to slow down and safely turn off the runway in approximately 600 ft., the Cherokee doesn’t need that much runway. With Hamilton’s 6,000’ and 10,000’ long runways I had more than enough room to recover and attempt another landing. I rarely did though. This may be attributed to my being “green” but if it didn’t feel right, I wasn’t going to try it again. Granted, recovering from a botched approach/landing is a skill I needed to work on but (obviously) I had enough trouble with landings as it was. I’d say that 1 out of 4 of my solo landings resulted in an overshoot.
Obviously my experience cannot be applied to the late pilots of the MD-11 above, who had thousands of hours under their belt. Yet I can’t help but wonder if a go around was initiated. We’ll have to wait and see what the investigation finds.
UPDATE: An image of the runway after the crash via Flight Image of the Day
UPDATE 2: Another, longer video of the crash from multiple angles. You can see the plane bank left after the nose gear touches down. Via A. Kabir’s Journal. Truly a horrific crash.
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OMG. That’s tragic!