- Date
- April 18, 1990, 04:33 local (11:33 UTC)
- Place
- Los Angeles, CA
- Injuries
- 6 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N68056McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10F
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report November 9, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900418010239A
- Case key
- 26626
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Pilot failed to adhere to established landing procedures, maintain a stabilized approach, and allowed the airspeed to go below the predicted v.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The regularly scheduled federal express (fedex) domestic cargo flight was routine when it arrived over Los Angeles from memphis. The capt conducted a prelanding briefing for the impending visual approach to runway 07L at lax. The briefing included setting the vref speeds in accordance with the company flight operations policy. The computed vref speed for landing as 143 knots; the touchdown speed was 138 knots. The pilot failed to maintain a stabilized approach and the airspeed decreased to 138 KIAS when crossing over the threshold. From that point the airspeed began to decelerate to 122.3 knots at touch down with a pitch attitude of 11.1 deg. At touchdown the pitch attitude continued to increase until the tailstrick occurred at a pitch attitude of 13.2 deg. Dfdr recorded data disclosed the capt relaxed the elevator control back pressure but it was not enough to prevent the tail strike. The flt manual recommends the pilot to lower the nose upon touchdown to counteract the increase in pitch attitude due to ground spoiler activation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N68056
- Reported as
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10F
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 47810
- Airframe hours
- 35,301
- Engine
- GE CF6-6D, 40,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · October 26, 1989 · 705 hours before
- Departed
- MEM · Memphis, TN
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- LAX · Los Angeles Intl
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 57
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport, Flight engineer
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 8,187 total · 3,690 in this make and model · 3,506 as pilot in command · 139 in the last 90 days · 17 in the last 30 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 260° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 8 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 1,700 ft broken
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point 54 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- LAX
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N68056 · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.