Plane's Wing Hit Ground On Landing

ANN REALTIME REPORTING 03.22.09 1900 EDT (UPDATED 2130 EDT:) A FedEx cargo freighter inbound from Guangzhou, China crashed on landing Monday morning at Tokyo's Narita International Airport, claiming the lives of the two-man flight crew onboard.

Citing Japanese media reports, Reuters states the MD-11 trijet (file photo of type shown above) was landing at Narita in clear conditions but strong crosswinds when the aircraft's left wing impacted the ground, sending the plane off the runway as it exploded.

Video footage of the accident, shown by the Tokyo Broadcasting System, shows the freighter landing hard on its maingear, then bouncing back up and entering a porpoising attitude. The nosegear strikes the runway next, pitching the plane back up and leading to an apparent tailstrike. When the plane strikes the runway the third and final time, the left wingtip strikes the ground and cartwheels the aircraft off the runway.

The fiery wreckage came to rest inverted at the side of the runway. "We confirm the deaths of the two pilots," Katsuji Komiyama, an official at Narita Red Cross hospital told Agence-France Presse..

The accident closed the main runway 16R/34L at Narita.

ANN will update this story as more information becomes available.

(Screengrab image from the Tokyo Broadcasting System)

FMI: www.narita-airport.jp/en, www.fedex.com