| - | ACCIDENT DETAILS |
| Date: | April 06, 1993 |
| Time: | 0110 |
| Location: | 950 nm S of Shemya, Alaska |
| Operator: | China Eastern Airlines |
| Flight #: | 583 |
| Route: | Shanghai - Los Angeles |
| AC Type: | McDonnell Douglas MD-11 |
| Registration: | B-2171 |
| cn / ln: | 48495/461 |
| Aboard: | 264 (passengers:248 crew:16) |
| Fatalities: | 2 (passengers:2 crew:0) |
| Ground: | 0 |
| Summary: | An inadvertent deployment of the leading edge wing slats, while in cruise flight, caused the autopilot to disconnect, The captain who began to fly manually caused the airplane to progress through several violent pitch oscillations and lost 5,000 feet of altitude. The captain then regained stabilized flight, declared an emergency and diverted to the US Air Force Base in Shemya, Alaska. Inadequate design of the flap/slat actuation handle that allowed the handle to be easily and inadvertently dislodged from the UP/RET position, thereby causing extension of the leading edge slats during cruise flight. Contributing to the violence of the pitch oscillations was the lack of specific MD-11 pilot training in recovery from high altitude upsets, |
Sources
Copyright © Richard Kebabjian / www.planecrashinfo.com