It is sad to see two fellow airmen make their last "probable" mistake on world wide T.V. (I am watching it in Dubai on the Persian Gulf)

It appears the plane got slow for whatever reason but the leading guess would be wind shear. There are procedures used in such instances but the MD-11 airliner is not forgiving at all of getting slow and loosing lift under the wings from the low airspeed. FedEx also had a very similar crash in Newark NJ a few years ago but the crew was mostly unhurt in that accident.

In the video of the Tokyo crash clearly shows the plane hitting hard on the wheels, bouncing, hitting hard again when the entire tail broke off right behind the wings. The MD-11 has an engine up on the tail with all the weight that goes along with it - probably did not help. After the tail broke off the plane rolled left breaking the left wing off and ending up upside down onfire. Sad day in aviation with two fellow aviators losing their lives.

It's a sad day when anyone with family or loved ones loses their life, regardless of the circumstances.

It sure is.

I was NOT throwing stones at the crew. Wind shear is the most unpredictable force in aviation. Windshear in an MD-11 when you are low and slow--well we saw hat can happen. Just a fatal set of circumstances. Very sad.

That sucks.  We've lost 2 pilots since I've been at UPS (17 yrs).  These guys are very highly qualified.  I believe you HAVE to have military flying hours be on a UPS crew, I imagine they have very similar standards at Fedex.

RIP fellow box haulers

I read about the crash in Montana this morning and now this. Yikes, I'm flying to Hawaii Sunday. Guess it will be a 5 beer boarding instead of a two.

Flying gives me the creeps.

I'm sorry for the crew and their families. Such a shame.

Does Tokyo have radar to detect windshear?

Years ago I was a passenger in a Cessna on an early Spring day. We were on final approach and the wind, which had been blustery as is common in Late March in Southern Illinois. It wasn't too bad until just before we touched down. Then, all hell broke loose. It seemed the pilot (an instructor at the SIU school of aviation) wasn't sure what to do. My impression was that he throttled up and down in rapid succession. In what seemed like forever but couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 seconds, we bounced high and hit hard a couple of times before we settled in. Scared the bejeezus out of me. I think the pilot soiled himself. Couldn't blame him if he had. I can't say for certain that it was windshear but whatever it was, I don't want to repeat it.