On 28 November 2009 at 08:12 (

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...

), Avient Aviation Flight 324, a

McDonnell Douglas MD-11F The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American trijet wide-body airliner manufactured by American manufacturer McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and later by Boeing. Following DC-10 development studies, the MD-11 program was launched on December 30, 1986. A ...

, registration Z-BAV (c/n 48408) operated by Avient Aviation departing

Shanghai Pudong International Airport Shanghai Pudong International Airport is one of the two international airports serving Shanghai, China. Pudong Airport serves both international flights and a smaller number of domestic flights, while the city's other major airport, Shanghai ...

destined for

Manas International Airport Manas International Airport (; ) is the main international airport in Kyrgyzstan, located north-northwest of the capital, Bishkek. History The airport was constructed as a replacement for the former Frunzensky Airport that was located to the ...

, near

Bishkek Bishkek, formerly known as Pishpek (until 1926), and then Frunze (1926–1991), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of the Chüy Region. Bishkek is situated near the Kazakhstan ...

, crashed during its takeoff roll with the loss of three lives.

Aircraft

The aircraft was acquired from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

-based

Pegasus Aviation P&M Aviation was a British aircraft manufacturer, specializing in ultralight trikes, founded in 2003. The company was purchased by Albatross Flying Systems in 2019. History The company was formed in 2003 by Keith Duckworth's purchase of two ...

, an aircraft lessor. Delivered in 1990, this MD-11 was the first owned by Pegasus to be leased to Korean Airlines as a passenger airliner and then converted to a freighter in 1995, with the registration HL7372. On 9 January 2002, the plane had suffered a minor incident where its tail hit the ground during loading in

Sydney Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport — colloquially Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney Airport or Mascot Airport — is an international airport serving Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district, in the subu ...

. The plane was returned to Pegasus in 2004. From 2005 to 2009 it was leased to

Varig Logística Varig Logística S.A., operating as VarigLog, was a cargo airline, based in Jardim Aeroporto, Campo Belo (district of São Paulo), Campo Belo, São Paulo, Brazil. All operations were suspended on 1 February 2012 and on 27 September 2012 it was d ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It was the sistership of HL7373, the MD-11F which crashed in

Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport is one of two international airports serving Shanghai, China. The airport is located near the town of Hongqiao in the outskirts of Changning and Minhang districts, west of downtown, and is closer to ...

due to pilot error when operating

Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316 Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316 (KE6316/KAL6316) was a scheduled Korean Air Cargo freight flight from Shanghai to Seoul. On 15 April 1999, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F operating the route, registered as HL7373, crashed in Xinzhuang, Shanghai sho ...

in 1999. Avient Aviation took delivery of Z-BAV on 20 November 2009, eight days before the crash.

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

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.

References

Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 Aviation accidents and incidents in China Aviation accidents and incidents in 2009 2009 in Shanghai November 2009 in China Disasters in Shanghai Aviation accidents and incidents involving runway overruns {{aviation-accident-stub