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FedEx cargo plane crash-lands at Narita airport, two dead

A FedEx cargo plane crash-landed and burst into flames on Monday at the Narita International Airport, killing the two US crew members aboard.

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A FedEx cargo plane crash-landed and burst into flames on Monday at the Narita International Airport, killing the two US crew members aboard and causing huge flight disruption at Japan's largest international hub.

The Transport Ministry and other investigators believe the accident was partly caused by strong winds buffeting the MD-11 aircraft as it attempted to land early morning.

Winds of up to 72 kilometres per hour were blowing in the vicinity of the airport at the time.

Before landing, airport traffic controllers warned the plane of the possibility of wind shear -- a condition in which wind speed and direction suddenly change -- up to at an altitude of 600 metres, according to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry.

It is the first fatal aircraft accident at Narita airport since it opened in 1978, Kyodo news agency quoted the airport operating company as saying.

The airport's main runway, on which the cargo plane touched down, was closed in the wake of the accident. However, another runway is operating. A total of 35 flights, mostly international and including those heading to New York, have been cancelled and 18 arriving flights have been rerouted to other airports, the Transport Ministry said.

The aircraft, Flight 80 from Guangzhou, southern China, had flammable liquid aboard, the Ministry said. It took firefighters about two hours to extinguish the blaze, which completely destroyed the aircraft.

Two men were rescued from the cockpit but were confirmed dead at a nearby hospital, the Chiba prefectural police said.

The police said they confirmed with FedEx that the crew members of the flight were Kevin Kyle Mosley, 54, the pilot, and Anthony Stephen Pino, 49, the co-pilot -- both US citizens.

Video footage showed the plane touching down on its rear wheels and its nose slamming into the runway.

The plane bounced and its left wing hit the ground, bursting into flames. It then flopped over and veered off the runway with flames coming from the center of the fuselage.

A FedEx employee who arrived at the accident site said the aircraft was blackened by fire on the inside and that the cargo was completely destroyed, adding the two crew members aboard must have had no time to escape.
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