The reason for the crash of the Federal Express Boeing MD-11 freighter which overturned and burst into flames after landing at Newark airport, New Jersey, USA on 31 July is still puzzling National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators, partly because the last 5s of flight data recorder (FDR) information has been degraded.
The NTSB's task is to find out why an aircraft type with an impeccable safety record can suffer the breaking of its right wing off at the root and then invert as a result of a runway centreline, wings-level 1.7G touchdown, in good weather and light wind.
The initial touchdown was followed by a bounce, a slow roll right, a final 1.7G touchdown, then hard contact by the right engine nacelle with the runway . The right main-gear broke off, possibly on the second touchdown. The wing-separation is believed to have caused the FDR data degradation.
Source: Flight International
