Federal Express Flight 3206
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10F · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99LA220
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10F
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N68058
- Operator
- Federal Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, CATo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 121: Air Carrier
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Flight control, flap attachment › Failure, total
- Flight control, flap attachment › Stress corrosion
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate design
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While on final approach with full flaps selected and indicated, the left inboard trailing edge flap and vane separated. The autopilot was disconnected and approximately 1/2 right aileron input was needed to counter the left banking tendency. The landing was reported to be firm but with less 'controllability'. Structural damage occurred to the left side of the fuselage due to flap and/or vane contact. The four H-11 type bolts of the forward attach point of the outboard hinge of the left inboard trailing edge flap failed due to stress corrosion cracking. Chromium was detected in the fracture origin of bolts Nos. 1-3; no determination was made as to why chromium was present. The two H-11 type bolts of the aft attach point of the outboard hinge of the left inboard trailing edge flap failed due to ductile overload. No material or processing discrepancies were found. H-11 bolts are susceptible to stress corrosion cracking. The FDR readout indicated that the maximum left roll was 8.09 degrees and flap extension speed was exceeded on landing No. 1 for approximately 13 seconds when the flaps were extending from 16 to 20 degrees. No flap overspeed protection is afforded in that range.
Probable cause
The inadequate design by the airplane manufacturer for using bolts to secure the inboard trailing edge flap that are susceptible to stress corrosion cracking. Also, the stress corrosion cracking failure of the four H-11 bolts that secure the left inboard trailing edge flap to the outboard hinge which allowed the separation of the flap and vane while on final approach.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99LA220
- Event ID
- 20001212X19589
- Case number
- MIA99LA220
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 53ec371e65f56e1dd104797ab0eb210be8955c3d3acea8e3a5a90138fad15725; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:54:37.925Z.