A FedEx MD-11 plane is seen in 2008If you want on or off this aerospace ping list, please contact Paleo Conservative or phantomworker by Freep mail.
A FedEx MD-11 plane is seen in 2008If you want on or off this aerospace ping list, please contact Paleo Conservative or phantomworker by Freep mail.
Two pilots killed in Tokyo plane crash
33 minutes ago
TOKYO (AFP) — Two pilots were confirmed dead at hospital after their FedEx cargo aircraft crash-landed and burst into flames Monday at Japan's Narita International Airport east of Tokyo, a hospital official said.
"We confirmed the deaths of the two pilots while we are still examining the exact cause of their deaths," Katsuji Komiyama, an official at Japanese Narita Red Cross Hospital, told AFP.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that one of the pilots was taken from the plane and sent to hospital, but his condition was not known.
Television footage showed the three-engine widebody airplane tip sideways shortly after touch-down amid strong winds and then, as one of its wings clipped the ground at high speed, burst into a ball of flames.
Fire engines and scores of fire-fighters in flame retardant silver suits rushed to the crash site near the runway and doused the fire with foam as the gutted aircraft lay upside down billowing black smoke.
The four-kilometre (2.5-mile) airstrip, one of the airport's two runways, was closed to air traffic, airport officials said.
The two pilots were believed to be US citizens, NHK said.
The site of a FedEx cargo plane crash in Narita, suburban Tokyo
Freight may have shifted as the porpoise was quite pronounced in what looks like pretty good landing conditions. Appears as if the pilot tried to nose down before the stall on the second bounce, collaspsing the port landing gear. Terrible way to go. Prayers out to the pilots and their families.
