Major accidents and disasters in the MD-11 history!
China Airlines, 22/8 1999
A China Airlines MD-11 crashed during a attempt to land at Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok airport. The aircraft was carrying 315 people and missed the approach due to a tropical storm. The aircraft flipped on the ground and came to a rest on the roof. Two passengers were killed and 208 were hurt in the crash.
More information is available here; Aviation Safety Network
Swissair, 3/9 1998
Swissair flight SR111 from New York (JFK) to Geneva, operated by MD-11 HB-IWF (msn 48448/cn 465) crashed outside the coast of Nova Scotia while attempting an emergency landing after having reported smoke in the cockpit. All 215 passengers and 14 crew members died in the crash. Below I have gathered a bunch of press releases that gives more information on the accident, and the first information on what could have been the cause of this tragic crash. Information received, with permission, from Stockholm Arlanda Flightspotter's Page by Robert Schönherr.
By Paul Simao
TORONTO (Reuters) - A catastrophic electrical failure could have occurred aboard a Swissair jet just
minutes before it crashed into the Atlantic off Canada, according to evidence pieced together by
investigators after a preliminary analysis of the airliner's flight data recorder.
Canadian investigators said Tuesday they observed signs of heat stress on small fragments of the cockpit
recovered from the crash site in the choppy waters off Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.
``There are some signs of heating on some of the small pieces of the wreckage retrieved,'' Vic Gerden,
chief investigator for Canada's Transportation Safety Board, told a news conference in Halifax.
``But it is much too early in the process to draw conclusions from this,'' Gerden said.
The pilot of Flight 111 reported smoke in the cockpit shortly before the plane disappeared from radar.
Canadian investigators are hoping the flight data recorder, plucked from the ocean on Sunday, will
provide solid clues as to why Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the sea last Wednesday night, killing all 229
aboard.
The device tracks data from flight instruments aboard jetliners, but in the case of the doomed Swissair
MD-11 it mysteriously stopped working shortly after one of the pilots declared an emergency as the plane descended to 10,000 feet .
Six minutes later the jet disappeared from radar.
The lengthy silence between the plane's last communication with air traffic controllers and its estimated
impact with the water has led investigators to speculate there could have been a serious systems failure
aboard the doomed airliner.
``There is a strong possibility that there weren't electrics on the airplane,'' Gerden said Monday.
He hinted a total electrical failure could have left the two pilots in the grim position of having to fly a
crippled plane manually with little more than a mechanical compass at their disposal.
Thick smoke and fumes from an electrical fire also could have hampered the pilots' efforts to operate the
plane's rudders and flaps manually and to land the fuel-heavy jetliner at Halifax airport.
The possibility that electrical failure prompted, or at least contributed, to the crash, has pushed
investigators to focus on reports of problems with the insulation on the wiring
in some MD-11s.
Boeing Co confirmed that Kapton-insulated wire was used on all MD-11 planes built by McDonnell
Douglas up until at least 1995. But Seattle, Wash.-based Boeing said its use was phased out for a lighter and
cheaper alternative.
Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas last year.
A U.S. Navy spokeswoman said the service had prohibited Kapton insulation from some aircraft uses after
the material showed a tendency to crack and spark.
``Obviously, if it (the wiring) was used, that's a possibility that we must consider and we'll be looking closely
at electrical bundles as they are brought up,'' said John Maxwell, an official with Canada's Transportation Safety Board.
Patrick Price, a 36-year Boeing veteran who retired in 1992 after spending his last eight years testing wire
for the planemaker, said Kapton wire was susceptible to a type of wiring fire known as arc tracking.
He said that at high temperatures, the Kapton insulation turns to carbon which provides a path for further
sparking.
``With Kapton, as long as one of wires has energy on it, it (the arcing) will continue to move just like a
dynamite fuse. It will continue to propagate,'' Price told Reuters.
Boeing spokesman Susan Bradley said Kapton wire was replaced in MD-11 production by TKT (teflon,
kapton, teflon) wire because it was cheaper and lighter.
``Kapton still is a certified, acceptable wire to be used on board commercial airplanes,'' she said.
Investigators hope the flight data recorder, or the yet-to-be retrieved cockpit voice recorder, will surrender a
more thorough explanation of why the Swissair MD-11 crashed roughly an hour and a half after take-off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Geneva.
Searchers have discovered the rough location of the cockpit voice recorder, which tapes all sounds in the
cockpit during a flight, but efforts to retrieve the device were suspended Tuesday because of rough seas.
REUTERS@
Federal Express, 31/8 1997
When one of Federal Express MD-11Fs bounced on landing at New York's Newark airport, skidded down the runway and stopped laying on it's back with the gears facing the sky. The aircraft also caught fire. The crew of five managed to climb to safety through a cockpit window with only minor injuries. The aircraft however, suffered from substantial damages and will most probably be written off. That makes it the first MD-11 write off in the history! One thing that makes this crash even more interesting is if you spend some time to go through the NTSB reports of incidents occurred on the MD-11. This informs you that the same aircraft were damaged in a landing on November the 4th 1994 at Anchorage. The aircraft landed hard on the runway, bounced and struck the tail in the runway before it came to an stop. The incident was blamed on pilot error. That is not the only accident this aircraft has in its history. In October 1993 the same MD-11 made an emergency landing after the flight crew found out that one of the three engines were loose! The aircraft involved in these accidents and now most probably written off is: N611FE (msn 48604/fn 553)
