Lufthansa Cargo Flight 8460 was an international cargo flight which crashed upon landing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the 27 July 2010. Both crew members, the only people on board, were injured but survived.[1]
,_Lufthansa_Cargo_AN0924136.jpg) D-ALCQ, the aircraft involved, photographed in August 2005 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 27 July 2010 |
| Summary | Crashed on landing due to hard touchdown |
| Site | King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 24°57′28″N 46°51′56″E / 24.9578°N 46.8656°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | McDonnell Douglas MD-11F |
| Operator | Lufthansa Cargo |
| IATA flight No. | LH8460 |
| ICAO flight No. | GEC8460 |
| Call sign | LUFTHANSA CARGO 8460 |
| Registration | D-ALCQ |
| Flight origin | Frankfurt International Airport, Frankfurt, Germany |
| 1st stopover | King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
| 2nd stopover | Sharjah Airport, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates |
| Destination | Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong |
| Occupants | 2 |
| Passengers | 0 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Injuries | 2 |
| Survivors | 2 |
Accident
editFlight 8460 was an international scheduled cargo flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Hong Kong via Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.[2] The flight from Frankfurt to Riyadh was uneventful, and weather conditions at Riyadh were good, with sufficient visibility.[3][4]
On arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the plane landed heavily, bounced repeatedly, eventually breaking up and veering off the runway. Both the 39-year-old Captain and 29-year-old First Officer were able to evacuate the plane using the emergency slide, but were injured. After the crash, a fire consumed the midsection of the aircraft before it was brought under control by the airport emergency services.[4][5][6]
Aircraft
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The aircraft involved in the accident was a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 registered as D-ALCQ,[3] MSN 48431, line number 534. The aircraft was delivered to Alitalia in 1993 as I-DUPB and was later converted to a cargo aircraft in 2004.[2] At the time of the accident, D-ALCQ had completed 10,073 cycles and accumulated 73,247 airframe hours. It was also equipped with three General Electric CF6-80C2D1F engines.[7][8][9]
Investigation
editThe General Authority of Civil Aviation opened an investigation into the accident. The final report found that the cause of the accident was that the airplane touched down too hard, which caused it to bounce on the runway. The crew did not recognize the bounce and reacted in a way that made the plane bounce even harder. The third and final touchdown was so hard that it caused the aft fuselage to rupture.[4][5][10]
Before this accident, there were 29 other bounced or severe hard landings with MD-11 aircraft that caused substantial damage.[4] A similar accident had occurred on FedEx Express Flight 80 in the previous year, where both crew members were killed in a bounced landing.
It was known that flight crews found MD-11 bounced landings difficult to detect.[4] The final report made several recommendations to improve training, procedures and flight instruments to help crews to deal with bounced landings.[4]
See also
edit
- FedEx Express Flight 80 – an MD-11 that bounced and flipped on landing in 2009
- China Airlines Flight 642 – an MD-11 that landed hard and broke up in 1999
- FedEx Express Flight 14 – an MD-11 that bounced and flipped on landing in 1997
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
References
edit- ^ "Lufthansa MD-11 Crash Lands at Riyadh". AirlineIndustryReview.com. Archived from the original on 2 June 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
- ^ a b Flyer, K. "Lufthansa Cargo MD-11 Crash Lands at Riyadh ( with Photos, Aircraft's History and Flight History )". Airline Industry Review. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
- ^ a b Hradecky, Simon. "Accident: Lufthansa MD11 at Riyadh on Jul 27th 2010, cargo fire, broke up on landing". Aviation Herald. Retrieved 15 August 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f "Final Accident Report" (PDF). General Authority of Civil Aviation. 21 January 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2016 – via German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation.
- ^ a b "Accident Description". Aviation Safety Net. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ "Lufthansa Cargo Crash in Saudi Arabia". Aviation Business Middle East. 27 July 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
- ^ "Lufthansa Cargo plane accident in Riyadh, 27 JUL 4.15 p. m. LT FRA". Lufthansa Cargo. Archived from the original on 1 August 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Accident McDonnell Douglas MD-11F D-ALCQ, Tuesday 27 July 2010". asn.flightsafety.org. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
- ^ "Final report D-ALCQ" (PDF). Retrieved 16 July 2024.
- ^ "Accident report of Lufthansa Cargo – Mcdonnel Douglas – MD11F (D-ALCQ) flight GEC8460". Aviation Accident Database. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
External links
edit- Report with photographs of the accident aircraft (in Arabic)
- Final report Archived 23 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine (Archive) – General Authority of Civil Aviation