bobbo says:

I’m no expert, crash or photoshop, but “it looks like to me” there was not any wind at all. I’m looking at the smoke at the time of the crash and afterwards. Pretty much just lazily floating upwards isn’t it?

It looks more like a porpoise effect from either over rotating on takeoff, or more/most likely “forgetting to flare” on the landing. Hard for that to happen absent some other stress.

Jeebers says:

The winds were gusting to 40+ mph at Narita.

ffred says:

MD11 is from a 70′s generation of birds you wonder why they aren’t flying human cargo anymore.
There are gonna be a whole bunch of pissed off people tomorrow waiting on FedEx to deliver their parts and laptops and shit from China.. and waiting.. and waiting…..

Poster says:

Stall. Definitely looks like he was flaring for landing, and stalled it out. Thats the only thing that would make the nose drop like that. If it was a sudden loss of headwind or windshear I would think the whole plane would drop together, not just the nose.

Winston says:

From MSNBC:

Investigators said the accident may have been caused by low-level turbulence or “wind shear,” sudden gusts that can lift or smash an aircraft into the ground during landing, said Kazuhito Tanakajima, an aviation safety official at the Transport Ministry.

Unusually strong winds of up to about 47 miles per hour were blowing through Narita City on Monday morning around the time of the crash, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

But Tanakajima said the wind speed at the time of the accident was not enough to be considered dangerous, unless wind shear was involved. He said there was headwind of about 45 miles per hour, and a crosswind of about 7 miles per hour.

Strong winds and turbulence have caused other recent incidents at the airport.

Last month, a flight from the Philippines was jolted by severe turbulence as it circled prior to landing, injuring 50 passengers and crew members.

The MD-11 has been involved in accidents in which it flipped while landing, and pilots have complained about the aircraft in the past. The plane is no longer used by carriers for passenger travel but is widely employed for moving cargo.

In 1999, an MD-11 flipped over and burst into flames, killing three people during a crash landing in a storm in Hong Kong. And in 1997 one of the planes landed hard, flipped and caught fire while landing in Newark, N.J.

soundwash says:

ah i’m all for the logical explanations, but the cemetery crash was described in the exact same manner.. nose suddenly dropping…

all i have to say is..wtf is going on??

this makes how many plane crashes in the first
three months of *this year*??

i think this is waay above the historical norm..

-too many easy answers..

if i hadn’t witnessed the flocks of geese
flying overhead here in the Bronx myself within 5-10min of flight 1549 going down, i’d be real suspicious.

-anyway,

if i was to speculate outside the norm, i’d
say someone has gone overboard playing with their new/old electromagnetic toys..or ionizing tech that is supposedly for research only..

need to find out who and/or what was on the planes
as well..

-just saying, -too much blatant corruption being thrust in our faces lately to rule it out.

-s

zorkor says:

That was a horrible accident. Already these poor pilots are fed up of carrying all these shit loads of FedEx and then they crash while flying old aircrafts. I mean we think we’re having a hardtime at our jobs. Sheesh..

Whatever caused the accident, it is sad and disheartening indeed.

Cap'nKangaroo says:

Kudos to hhopper for finding 2nd video. I could not visualize what would cause the sudden nose dip in the first video, but now it makes much more sense.

It would be interesting to see in a simulator what percentage of pilots could save the plane after that first bounce. My opinion, very few.

ECA says:

almost looks like the Wings are to far back, and someone Increased the WEIGHT FORWARD, in the cargo.
As soon as he cut power, IT DROPPED the nose.