Cargo Plane Crash!

[RedDragon]

It happened yesterday Im suprised no one here notised.

Heres the BBC link (includes video)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7958367.stm

My heart goes to the families of the pilots and I hope somthing is learned form this acident to benift the rest of the aerospace Industry.

[John]

Oh I think we all noticed, we just didn't post about it.

There was also a crash in Montana of a single engined plane, killing some children.

and I hope somthing is learned form this acident to benift the rest of the aerospace Industry.

Something of benefit is always learned in an accident in the aerospace industry (assuming they find the cause), it's why it is the safest in terms of passenger kilometre by such a wide margin.


No idea what caused it, but looking at the video I suggest the following occurred:

Plane comes in to land as normal, high winds
Something makes the plane bounce when it firsts hit the runway - either wind shear or a too fast descent rate
Plane powers up to go-around after bounce (hence why plane gains so much air) (BBC video starts after first bounce has happened, visit youtube for the full video)
Plane stalls
Plane bounces for second time, impact quite large due to stall - left wing damaged by undercarriage breakage (or something), also nose gear hits first, possible damage from that.
Left wing breaks off, losing lift (but right wing still has lift).
Fuel ignites with breakage and creates fireball
Plane cartwheels along runway, until coming to a stop upside down.


What to the other aviationy people think (EXTSpotter and Pikkabird)?

[EXTspotter]

The plane looks like in normal descent until a burst of windsheer, or possibly even a microburst forces it hard into the ground. It bounces off the ground and looks like it probably would have stalled seeing as it was at very low speed - landing speed is usually only about 20kts faster than stall, either that or after the first touchdown, the wing clipped the ground and caused it to somersault - look at the video of the hijacked ethiopian 767 which ditched off the comoros to see what I mean.

Condolences to the families and all those involved.

PLane was Fedex and was either an MD11F or MD10F

[John]

the wing clipped the ground and caused it to somersault - look at the video of the hijacked ethiopian 767 which ditched off the comoros to see what I mean.

Yes - but if it hit the runway the wing would bounce off rather then dig in and cause a somersault. Unless of course the wing struck the grass on the side of the runway, at which point it may well dig in....

[EXTspotter]

If it did hit a microburst or windsheer, it is very unlikely that the plane wouldn't have been moved sideways pretty sharpish. I would have said the wing might have hit the grass.

[John]

it is very unlikely that the plane wouldn't have been moved sideways pretty sharpish

Ahh double dutch!

And it depends on which direction the shear was in, which direction the plane bounced in and the general wind direction in general - the joys of aviation and its 3 million variables - but yes, keeping it on a 45m wide runway would have been something.

No doubt the video will be of great help during the investigation - don't need to rely on witnesses to get an idea of what happened to the plane on landing...