Accident
After making an approximately 1,800-mile (2,900 km) overnight flight from Guangzhou, China, the aircrew made an early morning approach to Narita Airport outside Tokyo. Other traffic landing just ahead of the accident aircraft reported "wind shear at an altitude of under 600 meters," and this information was relayed to the FedEx aircrew. Surface winds at the time of the accident were reported from 320° at 26 knots gusting to 40. After making a hard landing on runway 34L, the plane bounced three times, coming back down on its nose gear first (a condition called "porpoising") resulting in the loss of directional and attitudinal control. The left wing struck the ground as the gear failed, causing the aircraft to veer to the left, burst into flames and invert as the airframe broke up, and came to rest upside down in the grass to the left of the runway. It took firefighters about two hours to extinguish the blaze, which completely destroyed the aircraft and its contents.
Read more about this topic: Fed Ex Express Flight 80
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