RIP the MD11's commercial service. Last flight was yesterday, Oct. 25

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

The MD11's last commercial flight was yesterday, October 25. KLM672 from Amsterdam to Montreal and back officially concluded the airline's MD11 service. From now on, that route will be operated in Airbus A330s (  ). You can see the last flight here: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/KLM672

[RudiJG1 172]

But fortunately, FedEx is still flying the MD-11F every day.

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

But fortunately, FedEx is still flying the MD-11F every day.

Yup, and so is MartinAir, UPS, Lufthansa Cargo, EVA Air, and Saudi Cargo.

[theflyingdutchmen 3]

Its still a dream of mine to fly these. Ive flown on them as a passenger but to pilot this beautiful bird would be awesome! Im sad to see the last commercial flight go, I think KLM will still be flying them throughout November but as farewell flights and are all sold out... 

[Murmur 3,940]

The MD11's last commercial flight was yesterday, October 25. KLM672 from Amsterdam to Montreal and back officially concluded the airline's MD11 service. From now on, that route will be operated in Airbus A330s (  ). You can see the last flight here: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/KLM672

 

Thank God, no more passenger flights for the most unsafe modern airliner ( http://www.boeing.com/news/techissues/pdf/statsum.pdf , page 20 of 26 ). The A330 that makes you puke, is statistically way more safe than the MD11.

[NGXfanatic 85]

Sad to see her retire from flying passengers, but at least she has a plenty of life left carrying cargo.  I had tons of fun flying her in PMDG KLM colors, especially on the fabled EHAM-TNCM-TNCC-EHAM route back in 2010, a route I also flew in the PMDG 747!   And who can forget the infamous Martinair ITVV video, one of the finest commercial flight DVDs I've ever seen.

 

As a stickler for only flying real world routes by aircraft types/liveries being flown in the real world at the time, I was happy to find plenty of routes to choose from in flightaware in 2010-2011 during my PMDG MD-11 heyday.  

[bjratchf 80]

I just rode in a FedEx MD11 last weekend from PHNL-KLAX. It's alive and well!

[l3ubba 16]

Thank God, no more passenger flights for the most unsafe modern airliner ( http://www.boeing.com/news/techissues/pdf/statsum.pdf , page 20 of 26 ). The A330 that makes you puke, is statistically way more safe than the MD11.

Statistics like those are very misleading and not an accurate portrayal of overall safety. First, the MD-11 entered service four years prior to the A330. Next, if you consider how many flights the MD-11 has done and only had 9 hull losses (with only 5 being fatal) that is still an excellent record. I would also look to see how many of those accidents were due to pilot error because that has little to do with the aircraft and more to do with the pilot.

[crimtye 21]

There was in fact a fundamental design flaw regarding the handeling of the MD11, but it shouldn't be blown out of proportion. I'm sure KLM (or FedEx) pilots will tell you that it handels just fine. A large number of the hull losses were the result of the crew mishandeling the airplane.

 

But that's not the point.

 

Sad to see the last commercially operated MD11 retire!  :(

[Murmur 3,940]

Statistics like those are very misleading and not an accurate portrayal of overall safety. First, the MD-11 entered service four years prior to the A330. Next, if you consider how many flights the MD-11 has done and only had 9 hull losses (with only 5 being fatal) that is still an excellent record. I would also look to see how many of those accidents were due to pilot error because that has little to do with the aircraft and more to do with the pilot.

 

I don't think they're misleading at all, the above mentioned statistics are not an absolute number, but they are hull losses per million departures, so they're comparable. It's even worse than the previous generation DC10. Also, read the MD11 wikipedia entry at the paragraph "Safety issues".

[l3ubba 16]

I don't think they're misleading at all, the above mentioned statistics are not an absolute number, but they are hull losses per million departures, so they're comparable. It's even worse than the previous generation DC10. Also, read the MD11 wikipedia entry at the paragraph "Safety issues".

All it says in Wikipedia is that there was problems with the flight control systems but they were fixed in 1992 (2 years after it entered service). The second paragraph just talks about how its center of gravity is more towards the rear of the aircraft making it more challenging to fly.

[BIGSKY 316]

The DC-10 had no mechanical redundancy,The MD11 stabilizer size was markedly reduced to save weight,compromising pitch control ,necessitating the addition of LSAS, (longitudinal Stability augmentation system).

Of course the crew that fly these junks are not going to bad mouth them.

[xplanery 250]

Next, if you consider how many flights the MD-11 has done and only had 9 hull losses (with only 5 being fatal) that is still an excellent record.

 

It's a horrible record compared to A340 which entered service 3 years earlier, 377 aircraft built (compared to 200 of MD-11), yet only one hull loss in commercial service and zero fatal accidents. It's also horrible compared to the record of the 777, especially if we exclude crazy events of this year. 

 

 

 

The MD11 stabilizer size was markedly reduced to save weight,compromising pitch control ,necessitating the addition of LSAS, (longitudinal Stability augmentation system).

 

Yep, it seems like MD-11 is quite a lot less forgiving aircraft to fly than most others, especially at low speeds. I'm quite sure none of those hard landings that resulted in MD-11 flipping upside down would have been as serious if they had happened with A330 / A340 / 777 / 767. 

It's certainly an unique aircraft but not exactly one I would want to board on regular basis.