Federal Express McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10F accident
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10F · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA148
- 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
- N68056
- Operator
- Federal Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo not recorded
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- On ground/water collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vref), not attained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
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.
Probable cause
PILOT FAILED TO ADHERE TO ESTABLISHED LANDING PROCEDURES, MAINTAIN A STABILIZED APPROACH, AND ALLOWED THE AIRSPEED TO GO BELOW THE PREDICTED V.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA148
- Event ID
- 20001212X22938
- Case number
- LAX90FA148
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 9466e7a41e3b1a384d2eeda75fd442b56563833dae73bae2291b76934e4e83bd; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:03:06.781Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED FEDERAL EXPRESS (FEDEX) DOMESTIC CARGO FLIGHT WAS ROUTINE WHEN IT ARRIVED OVER LOS ANGELES FROM MEMPHIS"