FedEx Plane Lands With 'Bang' At FLL; Corrosion Blamed

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — A FedEx cargo plane that landed with a "bang" at Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport and then caught fire after it came to rest on the side of a runway, suffered from corrosion and metal fatigue, according to federal NTSB investigators. The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that corrosion caused the Oct. 28 landing gear collapse on the FedEx MD-10-10F, wide-body cargo jet.

"The flight crew reported hearing a 'bang' as the brakes were applied," the NTSB said. "The airplane yawed to the left as it decelerated and came to rest on the left side of the runway, followed by a fuel-fed fire on the left wing."

Subscribe to Aventura Patch's free email news alerts and newsletters

Federal investigators said that two crewmembers managed to get out of the plane but one suffered minor injuries.

"The plane was damaged beyond economical repair," the NTSB said. "Investigators found the failure of the left main landing gear was the result of a metal fatigue crack that initiated within the gear. The crack went undetected and gradually progressed until the gear collapsed."

The NTSB also found that the interval of nine years between scheduled overhauls of the main landing gear contributed to the incident. Boeing recommends that such overhauls be conducted every eight years.

"Investigators determined the fatigue crack would likely have been detected during an overhaul. The gear failed eight years and 213 days after its last overhaul," according to the NTSB.

The NTSB's 23-page final report is available here.

Photo by Dan Bower courtesy National Transportation Safety Board