FedEx Express Crash near Tokyo on 23 March 2009

Audio: MP3 | Video: iPod/MP4 | WMV | YouTube

23 March 2009 Crash of a FedEx MD-11 near Tokyo

The aircraft was on a cargo flight from Guangzhou, China to Narita Airport near Tokyo, Japan. The aircraft bounced on landing, and contacted the runway a second time nose wheel first. The plane then rolled to the left, hit the runway with its left horizontal stabilizer and wing, caught fire and rolled over onto its back, coming to rest off the left side of the runway. Both crew members were killed. This was the first fatal accident at Narita Airport since it opened in 1978.

This was the fourth crash landing of an MD-11 that led to either fatalities or to the destruction of the aircraft. Two previous crashes involved FedEx Express, a July 1997 crash in Newark, New Jersey, and an October 1999 landing overrun at Subic Bay Airport in the Philippines. No one was killed in these two events. An August 1999 China Airlines crash landing in Hong Kong during a rain storm led to the death of three of the passengers on board. There have been three fatal crashes involving passengers, the most recent being the Hong Kong crash.

About two hundred MD-11s were built, and about 182 are currently in service. FedEx Express operates the world's largest MD-11 fleet with about 57 active aircraft. Well over half of all active MD-11s are flying as dedicated cargo aircraft, with many of them being converted passenger airliners (including about 19 aircraft operated by Lufthansa Cargo). In addition to the two MD-11 crashes, NTSB records indicate that FedEx MD-11 aircraft have been in at least five other landing incidents or accidents involving either a bounced landing or a tail strike.

AirSafe.com YouTube channel.
Other FedEx Express Plane Crashes
Other MD-11 Plane Crashes

Ditching of a US Airways A320 on the Hudson River in New York

Crash of US Airways Flight 1549
Audio: MP3 | Video: iPod/MP4 | WMV | Google Video | YouTube

For more videos, visit the AirSafe.com YouTube channel.

On 15 January 2009, a US Airways A320 experienced a loss of power to both engines shortly after taking off from New York's LaGuardia Airport. The crew was able to successfully ditch the aircraft in the Hudson River near midtown Manhattan. Reportedly, the aircraft encountered a flock of birds shortly after takeoff. The aircraft reached an maximum altitude of about 3200 feet before it began to descend. After ditching, all five crew members and 150 passengers evacuated the aircraft. One passenger sustained serious injuries.

According to early reports, the aircraft took off normally toward the north, but the flight crew reported striking a flock of birds about two minutes after takeoff. Both engines lost power, and unable to either return to LaGuardia or to land in nearby Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, the crew turned the aircraft toward the south. After flying over the George Washington Bridge, the crew executed a controlled ditching on the Hudson River just west of midtown Manhattan. The passengers and crew escaped with the help of numerous ferries, tour boats, fireboats, and other vessels in the area.

This was the first crash of an Airbus A320 operated by a US airline. The A320 has had eight events involving passenger fatalities. The first was a 1988 crash involving Air France, and the most recent was a May 2008 crash of a TACA airliner in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

While many jet airliners have crashed in the water, prior research by AirSafe.com revealed only three previous events where the crew of a large passenger jet intentionally ditched the aircraft in a controlled manner. Prior to the US Airways event, the most recent ditching involved a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines 767 in 1996. The others included a 1963 ditching of an Aeroflot jet in Leningrad (present day St. Petersburg), and a 1970 ditching of a DC-9 in the Caribbean.

Fatal and serious bird strike related crashes of large jet aircraft are also quite rare. The last fatal US bird strike accident involving a large jet was the crash of a US Air Force E-3 AWACS in Alaska in 1995. The last time bird strikes led to passenger deaths in the US was in 1960 in Boston. Since 1990, five other large jet airliners have crashed due to bird strikes, but only one involved fatalities.

The following video is from a compilation of Glenn Pew of AvWeb


The NTSB is currently investigating this US Airways accident. For updates on this investigation, and for the latest news from AirSafe.com, visit hudson.airsafe.org.

For related information, visit:
Previous US Airways Crashes
Other Significant A320 Events
Bird Strike Hazards to Aircraft
Jet Airliner Ditching Events

Crash of an F/A-18D in San Diego 8 December 2008

On 8 December 2008, a US Marine Corps F/A-18D jet based at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station crashed during approach about two miles short of the runway. The pilot successfully ejected, but four people, two children, their mother, and grandmother were killed in one of the two houses destroyed by the jet. No one else on the ground was injured.

The investigation is ongoing, but reportedly the two-seat jet, flown by a single pilot on a training mission, had some kind of mechanical or flight control difficulty. The crash occurred as the pilot was returning from training on the carrier USS Lincoln, off the San Diego coast.

The F/A-18 has first entered operational service with the US Marines in 1983. The D model of the aircraft involved in the crash is used by the Marines as either a training or attack aircraft.

For the audio podcast from AirSafe.com, visit http://www.airsafe.com/podcasts/show76-f-18.mp3.


The AirSafe.com video podcast is available below:


The following video was produced by Glenn Pew.

F/A-18 Crash 8 December 2008

Ground Collision Involving United Express - 18 October 2008

On 18 October 2008, at about 4:49 am, Three people were injured when a United Express Canadair Regional jet, operated by Skywest Airlines, collided with a maintenance truck on a runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.



According to the Chicago Fire Department, the plane, which was being operated by a pair Skywest maintenance workers and had no passengers on board, was traveling from a hangar to a gate at when it collided with a pickup truck. The driver of the truck and the two mechanics from the plane sustained minor injuries.



Although the incident closed a runway for about two hours, flight operations were not affected.

Serious Injuries on a Qantas A330 Flight on 7 October 2008

A Qantas Airbus A330-300, with 303 passengers and 10 crew members on board, was on a scheduled international flight from Singapore to Perth. While in cruise, the aircraft reportedly experienced some type of sudden and unexpected altitude change. The crew issued a mayday call before diverting the aircraft to the airport at Learmonth, near the town of Exmouth, about 1100 kilometers or 680 miles north of its intended destination of Perth.

About 36 passengers and crew members were injured, with over a dozen severe injuries. Reportedly, several occupants were slammed into the ceiling during the event. Most of the injuries were to passengers and crew in the rear of the aircraft, and at least one person was carried off the plane in a stretcher. About 13 of the most seriously injured were flown to Perth by four aircraft from the Royal Flying Doctor Service. One flight attendant was hospitalized with suspected head and spinal injuries. Other serious injuries included fractures, lacerations, and a concussion.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has a team of seven investigators currently working on this incident, and it will likely be several days before a preliminary cause is announced, and several months before a final report is issued.

This is the first significant passenger safety event for the A330. Qantas currently has 15 A330 aircraft in its fleet, including 10 of the A330-300 model.

This is the second significant safety event for Qantas this year. On July 25, an exploding oxygen bottle blew a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas 747 en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne, causing a rapid decompression and forcing an emergency landing in Manila. No passengers were injured in that event.

Other significant safety events for Qantas in the last decade include a 2000 event in Rome involving the collapse of a 747 landing gear, and in 1999 a landing overrun in Bangkok severely damaged another Qantas 747.

In August 2008, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia conducted a review of Qantas safety and found no system-wide safety issues, but did recommend an audit of the airline's maintenance practices, including a full maintenance audit of one aircraft from three of the models flown by Qantas, the 737-400, 747-400, and 767-300. No maintenance audit was ordered for the airline's A330 fleet.

Additional information about this event, including updates or findings from the investigation or from the Qantas maintenance audit, will be available at qantas.airsafe.org.

Discovery of the Steve Fossett Crash Site

On September 3rd, 2007, adventurer Steve Fossett took off from Yerington, Nevada on a short flight in a Bellanca Super Decathlon, and went missing. After more than a year, a hiker found some of his personal effects high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California on September 29, 2008. Two days later, authorities spotted wreckage from his aircraft. Possible human remains were also found at the site.

The aircraft crashed into a steep granite slope at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, seven miles west of the town of Mammoth Lakes, California. The crash site is about 93 miles or 150 kilometers south of Yerington, Nevada. Pieces of the plane were scattered over a steeply sloped area, with the engine about 300 feet from the fuselage wreckage. There was also evidence of a post crash fire. Fossett was the only occupant.

About Steve Fossett
According to an earlier NTSB report, Fossett's most recent medical certificate was completed seven months before his final flight. At that time, he had over 6,700 hours of flight experience, with 350 hours in the previous six months. He was certified as an airline transport pilot, and was also certified to fly a balloon, helicopter, seaplane, and glider.

He had set over 100 records in five different sports, including over 90 in aviation. Among those aviation records was the first solo nonstop flight around the world in an aircraft, as well as the first solo round the world balloon flight. Outside of aviation, he had also sailed around the world and swam across the English Channel.

About the Bellanca Decathlon
The accident aircraft was a Bellanca Decathlon, a two-seat, single engine aerobatic aircraft. That model was produced between 1970 and 1981, and the accident aircraft was manufactured in 1980. According to the NTSB, between 1973 and 2008 there have been 105 Decathlon accidents, with 80 resulting in fatalities.

Accident Investigation
The NTSB has sent a team to investigate the crash, and is headed by the NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker. The investigation, including a determination of the probable cause of the accident, will likely take several months to complete.

Additional information about this event, including updates or findings from the NTSB investigation, will be available at http://fossett.airsafe.org.

Fatal Jet Crash Injures Blink-182 Drummer Travis Barker

Travis Barker, former drummer for the music group Blink-182, Adam Goldstein, more widely known as DJ AM, and two other passengers were in a Learjet 60 aircraft that was on a chartered flight from Columbia, South Carolina to Van Nuys airport in Los Angeles. The crash, which happened shortly before midnight, occurred during takeoff. The crew was attempting to abort the takeoff because of what they thought was a blown tire. The NTSB also reported that accident investigators reviewing the recording heard sounds consistent with a tire blowout.

The crew was unable to stop the aircraft before it departed the runway. The plane struck a series of antennas and lights, crashed through a fence, crossed a nearby highway, and came to rest on an embankment where it burst into flames.

The crash and subsequent fire killed both flight crew members and two of the four passengers. The two survivors, Barker and Goldstein, escaped the aircraft but suffered severe burns.