21 December 1992 - Martinair 495

Martinair Flight 495 was a Dutch DC-10, registration PH-MBN, that crash-landed at Faro Airport, Portugal, in severe weather conditions, in 1992. The airplane carried 327 passengers and 13 crew members on board, mainly vacationers from The Netherlands. 54 passengers, and 2 crew members died, and 106 persons were badly injured.

At 05.52 LT Flight 495 took off from Amsterdam for a flight to Faro. The flight had been delayed for 40mins due to no.2 engine reverser problems. After a flight of 2hrs and 17 minutes the flight was cleared to descend to FL70. Shortly afterwards Faro Approach Control provided the crew with the following weather: wind 15deg./18kts; 2500m visibility; thunderstorms with 3/8 clouds at 500ft, 7/8 clouds at 2300ft and 1/8 cumulonimbus at 2500ft, temp. 16deg. C. Clearance to descend to 1220m was given at 08.20h, followed by a clearance to 915m and 650m 4, resp. 6 minutes later. At 08.29 the crew were informed that the runway was flooded. At an altitude of 303m and 140kts speed the approach became unstable and at 177m the first officer switched the autopilot from CMD (command mode) to CWS (control-wheel steering). One minute later it was switched from CWS to manual and the airspeed began falling below approach reference speed. About 3-4 seconds short of touchdown elevator was pulled to pitch up and engine power was increased. When the no.3 and 5 spoilers extended, the aircraft had a 25deg. bank, left wing up. The right main gear contacted the runway with a 900ft/min descent rate at 126kts, +8.79deg. pitch up, +5.62deg roll and 1,9533G. The right wing separated while the aircraft slid down the runway. The aircraft came to rest 1100m from the runway 11 threshold and 100m to the right of the centerline and caught fire.

PROBABLE CAUSES: "The high rate of descent in the final phase of the approach and the landing made on the right landing gear, which exceeded the structural limitations of the aircraft.; The crosswind, which exceeded the aircrafts limits and which occurred in the final phase of the approach and during landing. The combination of both factors determined stresses which exceeded the structural limitations of the aircraft. Contributing factors were: The instability of the approach; the premature power reduction, and the sustaining of this condition, probably due to crew action; the incorrect wind information delivered by Approach Control; the absence of an approach light system; the incorrect evaluation by the crew of the runway conditions; CWS mode being switched off at approx. 80ft RA, causing the aircraft to be in manual control in a critical phase of the landing; the delayed action of the crew in increasing power; the degradation of the lift coefficient due to heavy showers." (DGAC Portugal)

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