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Atlas / NTSB / DCA97MA055

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DCA97MA055

1997-07-31 NEWARK, New Jersey, United States Airport · EWR Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The captain's overcontrol of the airplane during the landing and his failure to execute a go-around from a destabilized flare. Contributing to the accident was the captain's concern with touching down early to ensure adequate stopping distance.

Factual narrative

On July 31, 1997, about 0132 eastern daylight time, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, N611FE, operated by Federal Express, Inc., (FedEx) as flight 14, crashed while landing on runway 22R at Newark International Airport, Newark, New Jersey (EWR). The regularly scheduled cargo flight originated in Singapore on July 30 with intermediate stops in Penang, Malaysia; Taipei, Taiwan; and Anchorage, Alaska. The flight from Anchorage International Airport to EWR was conducted on an instrument flight rules flight plan and operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121. On board were the captain and first officer, who had taken over the flight in Anchorage for the final leg to EWR, one jumpseat passenger, and two cabin passengers. All five occupants received minor injuries in the crash and during subsequent egress through a cockpit window. The airplane was destroyed by impact and a postcrash fire. On July 31, 1997, at 0130 edt, Federal Express cargo flight 14, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, N611FE, crashed while landing on runway 22R at Newark IAP, Newark, NJ. The airplane experienced a hard landing, bounced, and the right main landing gear collapsed on the second touchdown. A fire broke out after the airplane came to a stop and destroyed the airplane. VFR conditions prevailed at the time, and the two pilots and three other company personnel received minor injuries. The flight originated at Anchorage, AK, and was on an IFR flight plan. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1997_DCA97MA055.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗