FedEx plane crashes on landing at Narita airport; pilot, co-pilot killed

Monday 23rd March, 02:00 PM JST

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Realistic at 02:41 PM JST - 23rd March

R.I.P pilots.

likeitis at 09:09 AM JST - 23rd March

agree!
neganip at 03:04 PM JST - 23rd March

I feel sad for the pilots. I am sure that there is a combination of issues that contributed, but i am amazed to hear that narita is not operational basically. After all that ruckus with the farmers and the billions of dollars that they spend every year on it, along with the loans for the shuttles etc ... the busiest airport in japan has only one runway equipped to land big bird ? WOW !!!
dennis0bauer at 03:07 PM JST - 23rd March

if the crash happened due to windshear then it was not a crash landing but a landing that went wrong. RIP pilots
Nessie at 03:17 PM JST - 23rd March

Long-distance video footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiGDd2QGNUQ
Mz at 03:38 PM JST - 23rd March

dennis0bauer - enough already! Very sad, condolences to the pilots' families.
pawatan at 03:41 PM JST - 23rd March

I flew into Narita yesterday and it was pretty windy/bumpy on the approach -- much more so than usual, especially for a large aircraft (I was on a 777). We were warned about the high winds prior to approach. The actual landing was quite smooth, though.

Very sad accident! Condolences to the families and friends.
SuperLib at 04:45 PM JST - 23rd March

Such a shocking video to watch. What a violent way to go....
temporaryVisa at 06:46 PM JST - 23rd March

Dramatic video. Looks like it was caught in a microburst. Pretty much impossible for the pilots to compensate for, especially in an MD-11.
Badge213 at 11:56 PM JST - 23rd March

Today was a very windy day, even many train lines were delayed this morning due to the wind.
Mattchu at 01:34 AM JST - 24th March

They were two of our's. It's an absolute trajedy. Some years ago FedEx employees were allowed to jumpseat in the aircrafts. The MD-11 that I was riding in was piloted from Anchorage into Narita. Just before we arrived the co-pilot handed me the weather ticket printout. It displayed a 35 knot crosswind. When we got into Narita we bounced on one wheel before settling onto two wheels, then the auto brakes brought the craft under control. It was a bit frightening. Afterwards I watched many incoming passenger aircraft landing. But they didn't seem to be having as much trouble, but you have to take into consideration that it was perhaps different aircraft and loaded with passengers. In this case it's quite possible that they didn't have much freight onboard, and therefore the craft was a handful to navigate in those winds. It's a trajedy, indeed.
WhiteHawk at 02:09 AM JST - 24th March

I hope the families and co-workers of the pilots can find peace after this tragedy, and I hope the pilots themselves are at peace. And I hope this will be prevented from happening again.
bharatkaushal58 at 12:43 PM JST - 24th March

lesson for Pilots-Even if you landed before at same airport in such conditions, be careful, be ready to go up again and come back when weather is right.Pilot mindset is for a successful landing .Anything going wrong last seconds , go up again to live another day.It is too,too hurtful for those family and friends who cared for the Pilots.God Bless.Airport should put black flag up when wind speeds or weather exceeds a certain value.Airport is taking chances when it allows flights to take off and land in real bad weather.Others landed safe ,so what?This one did not.Why?schedules ,ontime,compultions.Black box will reveal something.
LFTIGER at 04:33 PM JST - 25th March

Cross-wind landings are always a problem, and even more so in wind shear conditions. Apparently a microburst created a low pressure condition under the aircraft, which forced the nose hard onto the runway,then a second one created high pressure under the right wing...flipping the MD-11 onto its back. The forces were probably so strong that no amount of control input could have counteracted them, especially so close to the ground. As I see it the only mistake the pilots made was going flying that day.
archiebald at 05:40 PM JST - 25th March

The content of these links are interesting. The MD-11 seems to have a habit of doing this in crosswinds.

http://www.iasa.com.au/folders/sr111/forbidding.html

http://www.airlinesafety.com/faq/faq9.htm
OssanAmerica at 07:08 AM JST - 29th March

OK so why is a March 23rd story running on the March 29th page? For a moment I thought a second Fedex plane crashed.

Moderator: What are you talking about?