FedEx Express Flight 1406 - Misplaced Pages

1996 aviation accident

Federal Express Flight 1406
Accident
The aftermath of Flight 1406
Date	September 5, 1996 (1996-09-05)
Summary	In-flight fire of undetermined origin in cargo hold
Site	Stewart International Airport, Newburgh, New York, United States 41°30.25′N 74°06.29′W / 41.50417°N 74.10483°W / 41.50417; -74.10483
Aircraft
The aircraft involved, seen here on April 1, 1996
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10CF
Aircraft name	Chandra Renee
Operator	Federal Express
IATA flight No.	FX1406
ICAO flight No.	FDX1406
Call sign	FEDEX 1406
Registration	N68055
Flight origin	Memphis International Airport, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Destination	Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Occupants	5
Passengers	2
Crew	3
Fatalities	0
Injuries	2
Survivors	5

Federal Express Flight 1406 was an American domestic cargo flight from Memphis International Airport, Memphis, Tennessee, to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, that suffered an in-flight cargo fire over New York on September 5, 1996. The three crew members and two passengers on board successfully evacuated after an emergency landing at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, New York. After the evacuation, the DC-10 was consumed by fire. After an extensive investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) couldn't determine what caused the fire. Nevertheless, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made recommendations to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved, manufactured in 1975, was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10CF registered as N68055. It had logged onto more than 38271 airframe hours and 17818 take-off and landing cycles and was equipped with three General Electric CF6-6D engines.

Crew

There were three crew members and two passengers on Flight 1406. The Captain (47), had 12,344 flight hours; the First Officer (41), had 6,535 flight hours; and the Flight Engineer (45) had 3,704 flight hours. Also on board were two FedEx employees (including Vietnam veteran and Eastern Air Lines pilot Frederick S. Olmsted Jr.) sitting in jumpseats.

Flight

Flight 1406 departed from Memphis International Airport at 3:42am, en route to Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of 7:42am.

At 5:42am, Flight 1406 was cruising at 33,000 ft (10,000 m) above the state of New York when the Cabin Smoke Fire Alarm sounded in the cockpit. Smoke detectors for several zones of the aircraft's main deck cargo compartment alerted the pilots of suspected smoke, prompting the crew members and passengers to don their smoke masks. Aircraft systems began to fail, and the crew noticed smoke entering the cockpit. The crew informed Boston Air Traffic Control (ATC) about the fire situation; ATC suggested that Flight 1406 could make an emergency landing at Albany County Airport, 50 mi (80 km) ahead, or to land at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, 25 mi (40 km) behind. The crew decided to land at Stewart.

At 5:49am the aircraft was on approach to Stewart International Airport, where airport fire services prepared for the DC-10 to land on Runway 27. The aircraft successfully landed at the airport at 5:54am and turned onto a taxiway, where it came to a stop for the fire services to engage. The crew and the employees tried to evacuate the aircraft, but the doors and cockpit windows could not be opened because the fuselage was still pressurized. The captain then de-pressurized the aircraft and all occupants then exited safely; the flight crew through a cockpit window and the passengers through one of the forward fuselage cabin doors. The fire crews found the cargo prevented them from accessing the source of the smoke from inside the cabin and forty minutes after the aircraft landed the fire burned through the fuselage skin; the fire was extinguished four hours after the aircraft landed. All five people on board survived, though two members of the flight crew received minor injuries.

Investigation

Because the fire damage was extensive, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation was unable to find a source of ignition. On 22 July 1998, the NTSB released its report, concluding, "the probable cause of this accident was an in-flight cargo fire of undetermined origin".

References

"Accident McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10CF N68055". asn.flightsafety.org. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
^ "After Smoke Detected in Cargo Compartment Crew Lands DC-10 Then Fire Destroys Aircraft" (PDF). flightsaftey.org. Flight Safety Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 2, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
"Fedex 1406 CVR Transcript". www.tailstrike.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
^ "In-flight Fire/Emergency Landing, Federal Express Flight 1406, Stewart International Airport, Newburgh, New York, September 5, 1996" (PDF). www.ntsb.gov. National Transportation Safety Board. July 22, 1998. NTSB/AAR-98/03. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 6, 2022. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10CF N68055 Newburgh-Stewart Airport, NY (SWF)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. Retrieved May 29, 2020.

Portals:

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1996 (1996)
Jan 8 Air Africa crashFeb 4 LAC Colombia Flight 028Feb 6 Birgenair Flight 301Feb 29 Faucett Perú Flight 251Apr 3 USAF CT-43 crashApr 5 Formosa Airlines Flight 7613May 11 ValuJet Flight 592Jun 9 Eastwind Airlines Flight 517Jun 13 Garuda Indonesia Flight 865Jul 6 Delta Air Lines Flight 1288Jul 15 Belgian Air Force Hercules crashJul 17 TWA Flight 800Aug 16 Airstan incidentAug 19 Spair Airlines Flight 3601Aug 29 Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801Sep 3 Hemus Air Flight 7081Sep 5 FedEx Express Flight 1406Sep 25 Texel Douglas DC-3 crashOct 2 Aeroperú Flight 603Oct 5 Westendorff UFO sightingOct 19 Delta Air Lines Flight 554Oct 22 Millon Air Flight 406Oct 31 TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402Nov 7 ADC Airlines Flight 086Nov 12 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collisionNov 19 Quincy Airport disasterNov 23 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961Nov 27 Abakan Ilyushin Il-76 crashDec 9 Dirgantara Air Service Flight 5940Dec 22 Airborne Express Flight 827Dec 24 New Hampshire Learjet crash
1995 ◄ ► 1997

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1996 (1996)

Jan 8 Air Africa crashFeb 4 LAC Colombia Flight 028Feb 6 Birgenair Flight 301Feb 29 Faucett Perú Flight 251Apr 3 USAF CT-43 crashApr 5 Formosa Airlines Flight 7613May 11 ValuJet Flight 592Jun 9 Eastwind Airlines Flight 517Jun 13 Garuda Indonesia Flight 865Jul 6 Delta Air Lines Flight 1288Jul 15 Belgian Air Force Hercules crashJul 17 TWA Flight 800Aug 16 Airstan incidentAug 19 Spair Airlines Flight 3601Aug 29 Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801Sep 3 Hemus Air Flight 7081Sep 5 FedEx Express Flight 1406Sep 25 Texel Douglas DC-3 crashOct 2 Aeroperú Flight 603Oct 5 Westendorff UFO sightingOct 19 Delta Air Lines Flight 554Oct 22 Millon Air Flight 406Oct 31 TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402Nov 7 ADC Airlines Flight 086Nov 12 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collisionNov 19 Quincy Airport disasterNov 23 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961Nov 27 Abakan Ilyushin Il-76 crashDec 9 Dirgantara Air Service Flight 5940Dec 22 Airborne Express Flight 827Dec 24 New Hampshire Learjet crash

1995 ◄ ► 1997

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1990s
1990	Northwest Airlines Flight 5 (January 4 1990) Avianca Flight 052 (January 25 1990) Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2254 (April 1990) Death of Stevie Ray Vaughan (August 1990) Wayne County Airport runway collision (December 1990)
1991	Los Angeles Airport runway collision (February 1 1991) Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 (February 17 1991) United Airlines Flight 585 (March 1991) Merion air disaster (April 4 1991) Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 (April 5 1991) L'Express Airlines Flight 508 (July 1991) Continental Express Flight 2574 (September 1991) Vallejo helicopter crash (October 1991)
1992	CommutAir Flight 4821 (January 1992) Air Transport International Flight 805 (February 1992) USAir Flight 405 (March 1992) American Eagle Flight 5456 (June 7 1992)* GP Express Airlines Flight 861 (June 8 1992) TWA Flight 843 (July 1992)
1993	Lufthansa Flight 592 (February 1993) Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 46E (March 1993) Alan Kulwicki plane crash (April 1 1993) China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 (April 6 1993) American Airlines Flight 102 (April 14 1993) American International Airways Flight 808 (August 1993)* Northwest Airlink Flight 5719 (December 1993)
1994	United Express Flight 6291 (January 1994) Green Ramp disaster (March 1994) Federal Express Flight 705 (April 1994) Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash (June 1994) USAir Flight 1016 (July 1994) USAir Flight 427 (September 1994) American Eagle Flight 4184 (October 1994) TWA Flight 427 (November 1994) Flagship Airlines Flight 3379 (December 1994)
1995	Air Transport International Flight 782 (February 1995) Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529 (August 1995) Alaska Boeing E-3 Sentry accident (September 1995) American Airlines Flight 1572 (November 1995) Tower Air Flight 41 (December 1995)
1996	ValuJet Flight 592 (May 1996) Eastwind Airlines Flight 517 (June 1996) Delta Air Lines Flight 1288 (July 6 1996) TWA Flight 800 (July 17 1996) FedEx Express Flight 1406 (September 1996) Delta Air Lines Flight 554 (October 1996) Quincy Airport disaster (November 1996) Airborne Express Flight 827 (December 22 1996) New Hampshire Learjet crash (December 24 1996)
1997	Comair Flight 3272 (January 1997) FedEx Express Flight 14 (July 1997) Korean Air Flight 801 (August 6 1997)* Fine Air Flight 101 (August 7 1997) John Denver (October 1997)
1998	United Airlines Flight 863 (June 1998)
1999	American Airlines Flight 1420 (June 1999) Martha's Vineyard plane crash (July 1999) South Dakota Learjet crash (October 1999)
This list is incomplete. An asterisk (*) denotes an incident that took place in either a U.S. territory or Guantanamo Bay. 1980–1989 ◄ 1990–1999 ► 2000–2009

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