ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 322706
| Date: | Thursday 18 December 2003 |
| Time: | 12:26 |
| Type: |  McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10F |
| Owner/operator: | FedEx Express |
| Registration: | N364FE |
| MSN: | 46600/4 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1971 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 65375 hours |
| Cycles: | 26163 flights |
| Engine model: | General Electric CF6-6D |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Memphis International Airport, TN (MEM) -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Oakland International Airport, CA (OAK/KOAK) |
| Memphis International Airport, TN (MEM/KMEM) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
FedEx flight 647 departed Oakland at 06:32 PST for a cargo flight to Memphis. The first officer was the pilot flying on that leg. The captain of the flight was a company check airman who was conducting a multi-leg line check for the first officer. The flight was routine until the approach to Memphis.
At 12:06 the captain contacted Memphis Approach. He was told to expect an approach to runway 36L. After listening out the ATIS, the captain advised the first officer that the winds were out of "three twenty at sixteen gusts to twenty two. Ten miles [visibility]. It's still saying wind shear."
At 12:15 Memphis Approach informed the flight that they should expect to land on runway 36R instead of 36L, as previously instructed. Six minutes later the captain radioed that they had the airport in sight. The controller cleared them for a visual approach and instructed the captain to contact Memphis Tower. The tower controller stated: "FedEx six forty seven heavy, Memphis tower, number two following a heavy Airbus two mile final caution wake turbulence runway three six right. Gain and loss of ten [knots] short final runway three six right, cleared to land."
The airplane was configured for landing and the crew discussed adding 4 knots to the Vref speed.
A single tailwind shear alert sounded about 12:23:52. Moments later the airplane descended through 1000 feet. The captain confirmed the approach was stable and the approach to land was continued.
During the 20 seconds before touchdown, the airplane's descent rate was 12.5 feet per second (fps) with +/- 2.5-fps oscillations. At 12:25:52, the airplane's left main landing gear touched down at a rate of about 12.5 fps; about 0.25 second later, the right main landing gear touched down at a rate of about 14.5 fps. The MD-10 landing gear is designed to be capable of absorbing energy that is equivalent to a maximum airplane descent rate of 12 fps.
The excessive vertical and lateral forces on the right main landing gear during the landing exceeded those design limits and resulted in the fracture of the outer cylinder and the collapse of the right main landing gear. The airplane began to bank and turn to the right. The crew were unable to steer the airplane back to the left and it skidded off the right side of the runway and came to a stop in the grass. Shortly after coming to a stop there was an explosion and a fire developed on the right side to the airplane. All seven occupants were able to successfully evacuate the airplane using the cockpit windows.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "1) the first officers failure to properly apply crosswind landing techniques to align the airplane with the runway centerline and to properly arrest the airplanes descent rate (flare) before the airplane touched down; and 2) the captains failure to adequately monitor the first officers performance and command or initiate corrective action during the final approach and landing."
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
Location
Images:
photo (c) Dan Parent (www.kc-10.net); Memphis International Airport, TN (MEM); 18 December 2003
photo (c) Dan Parent (www.kc-10.net); Memphis International Airport, TN (MEM); 18 December 2003
photo (c) NTSB; Memphis International Airport, TN (MEM); 18 December 2003; (publicdomain)
photo (c) NTSB; Memphis International Airport, TN (MEM); 18 December 2003; (publicdomain)
photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport, NV (LAS); October 1994
Revision history:
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