Avient Aviation Flight 324
McDonnell Douglas MD-11F · Runway excursion
From Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) to Manas International Airport (BSZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA10RA013
- 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
- Unknown · CAAC official statement, 28 Nov 2009
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 7
- Survivors
- 4
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 4
- 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
- Not recorded
McDonnell Douglas MD-11F
- Flight
- Z3324
- 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
- Z-BAV
- Operator
- Avient Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)To Manas International Airport (BSZ)
- 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
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- 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
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe 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
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Physical
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
On 28 November 2009, at 08:12 (UTC+8), Avient Aviation Flight 324, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, registration Z-BAV (c/n 48408) operated by Avient Aviation departing Shanghai Pudong International Airport destined for Manas International Airport, near Bishkek, crashed during its takeoff roll with the loss of three lives.
Incident
As the aircraft rotated for departure, the tail struck the ground, and the aircraft then overshot the end of the runway, crashed and landed on top of a warehouse near the runway. The plane was written off.
Crew members were from the United States (4), Indonesia (1), Belgium (1) and Zimbabwe (1).
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Official investigation reports have been difficult to acquire over the years; on 28 February 2020, an English translation of a "brief abstract" of a Chinese investigation became publicly available. According to this translated abstract, the thrust levers were never advanced to takeoff position, and the autothrust never transitioned to takeoff mode. The crew perceived through physical cues that thrust was abnormally low, but neither identified the problem nor took any corrective action. Simulations seemed to indicate that with timely corrective action, recovery and prevention of the accident was possible. Fatigue was suspected to be a contributing factor for all crew members, many suffering jetlag from lengthy travel and numerous time zone transitions to position themselves for the accident flight.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Avient Aviation Flight 324” (revision 1359587862, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On November 28, 2009, at 0816 local time, a Boeing/McDonnell Douglas MD-11, manufacturer serial number 48408, Zimbabwe registration Z-BAV, operated by Avient Aviation, crashed on takeoff from runway 35L at Pudong airport, Shanghai, China. The airplane was destroyed by fire and impact forces. There were 3 fatalities and 4 serious injuries among the seven crew members aboard the cargo flight. The accident is being investigated by the CAAC of China.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Avient Aviation Flight 324
- Article
- Avient Aviation Flight 324
- Revision
- 1359587862 · 2026-06-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4828809
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA10RA013
- Event ID
- 20091128X72625
- Case number
- DCA10RA013
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Avient Aviation Flight 324" (page 25239172, revision 1359587862); merged with NTSB case DCA10RA013 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) accident investigation team official statement
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: airport the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata code, OurAirports)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA10RA013
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) accident investigation team official statement
- Ground fatalities
- Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) accident investigation team official statement
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Avient Aviation Flight 324" and NTSB case DCA10RA013, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Checked against the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) accident investigation team official statement (2009-11-28) on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, fatalities, operator, departure, destination and damage. Taken from the report: ground fatalities. Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, flight number, aircraft type, registration and type of operation.