Avient Aviation Flight 324


On 28 November 2009, at 08:12, Avient Aviation Flight 324, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, registration Z-BAV operated by Avient Aviation departing Shanghai Pudong International Airport destined for Manas International Airport, near Bishkek, crashed during its takeoff roll with the loss of three lives.

Aircraft

The aircraft was acquired from San Francisco-based Pegasus Aviation, 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. The plane was returned to Pegasus in 2004. From 2005 to 2009 it was leased to Varig Logística of Brazil. It was the sistership of HL7373, the MD-11F which crashed in Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport due to pilot error when operating Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316 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, Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe.

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.