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| Date: | Wednesday 15 January 2003 |
| Time: | 20:38 |
| Type: |  McDonnell Douglas MD-11 (F) |
| Owner/operator: | FedEx |
| Registration: | N583FE |
| MSN: | 48421/452 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1990 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor, repaired |
| Location: | Over Thaxted, Essex -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG/LFPG) |
| London-Stansted Airport (STN/EGSS) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The aircraft and crew were scheduled to fly from Paris, Charles De Gaulle Airport to Stansted, Essex before continuing to Newark, New Jersey. The crew consisted of a training captain, a first officer under training who was the handling pilot, and a relief first officer. The operator's normal landing flap setting was 35°, but it was a requirement for the trainee first officer to carry out a full flap landing. The crew therefore planned to use flap 50° for the landing at Stansted. The following has been compiled from crew reports and extracts from the aircraft's Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR).
The flight from Paris to Stansted, where the weather was fine, was uneventful until the approach to Runway 23. At about 4,000 feet, flap 35° was selected and the first officer noticed that he needed a small amount of rudder trim to keep the aircraft in balance. The flaps were then selected to 50° and shortly afterwards the captain felt a 'thump', similar to that of a birdstrike. Thereafter, the first officer needed to apply a large amount of right aileron to keep the wings level. The crew quickly reselected the flaps to 35° whereupon most of the requirement for right aileron disappeared. After a brief discussion the crew decided to reselect flaps to 50° with the Configuration Page selected on the Synoptic Display of the EFIS system. On reselection of flaps to 50°, the requirement for right aileron reappeared but, apart from the displacement of the ailerons from the neutral position, all other indications on the Configuration Page, including those for flaps, were normal. The crew reselected the flaps to 35° and carried out a normal landing. During taxi after landing, the flaps were raised and, shortly thereafter, the Electronic Instrument System alerting system gave a 'HYD 2 QTY LO' message shortly by a 'HYD 2 FAIL' message. On inspection after landing, a large section of the left inboard flap vane was found to be missing. A section of flap vane was later recovered from the village of Thaxted, some 6 miles to the north-east of Stansted.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f67340f0b6134600064b/dft_avsafety_pdf_023411.pdf
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/57374 (Photo)
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 3 June 2020 | N583FE | FedEx | 0 | Mumbai-Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM/VABB) |  |
non |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 08-Mar-2025 15:16 | Justanormalperson | Added |
| 08-Mar-2025 15:17 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, Accident report, ] |
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