Federal Express Flight 5181
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 · Accident: abrupt maneuver en route
From Kuala Lumpur International Airport (WMKK) to Subic Bay International Airport / Naval Air Station Cubi Point (RPLB)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA02MA039
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- 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
- N588FE
- Operator
- Federal Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kuala Lumpur International Airport (WMKK), Kuala LumpurTo Subic Bay International Airport / Naval Air Station Cubi Point (RPLB), Subic Bay
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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, elevator › Failure, partial
- Pilot in command › Maneuver, abrupt
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
The MD-11 airplane experienced structural damage to the left elevator during an abrupt maneuver while descending to land. The abrupt maneuver was initiated by the flight crew in response to a false ground proximity warning system (GPWS) alert that occurred as the airplane was encountering heavy precipitation at an altitude of about 9,800 feet above mean sea level. The GPWS warning subsided during the maneuver. The airplane landed uneventfully. Both flight crewmembers, the sole occupants, were not injured. Post-flight inspection of the airplane revealed that the outboard portion of the left elevator, including the balance weight, was partially separated. The flight crew stated that they had no problems with aircraft handling after the escape maneuver. The investigation revealed that the escape maneuver was aggressive and consistent with procedures that are published in Federal Express' airplane flight manual for "GPWS Pull Up Warning." The elevator damage occurred as a result of an excedence of the airplane's design aerodynamic stall buffet boundary, which led to a severe vibration of the elevator. The stall buffet boundary was exceeded as a result of the captain's initiation of the escape maneuver. The false reading of the no. 1 and no. 2 radio altimeters prompted the false GPWS warning and was most likely due to their signal return off of heavy precipitation. No post-accident mechanical deficiencies were found with the flight controls, avionics, or elevator structure.
Probable cause
The momentary operation of the airplane outside of the airplane's aerodynamic design stall buffet boundary that resulted from the captain's initiation of a Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) escape maneuver. Factor's contributing to the accident were the false readings of both radio altimeters which prompted the false GPWS warning, and the inadequate structural capability of the elevator design to remain intact during momentary operations outside of the stall buffet boundary.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA02MA039
- Event ID
- 20020604X00806
- Case number
- DCA02MA039
- 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: 79b0d590e4ca0cae737dcd6a1a170a2236b4e41ffe4403ddcfe5080f2d510343; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:02:15.329Z.