DC-10 Loses Engine Cowling Over NJ

No one was injured early Tuesday as pieces of a FedEx DC-10 cargo plane rained down on a neighborhood near Newark International Airport.

In all, four pieces of the aircraft's tail-mounted number three engine cowling were recovered in Nutley Township, NJ -- the largest being a five-foot-by-eight-foot piece of purple-painted metal that was found by a local police officer.

"When he went to move it, he realized, this is not a piece of a car," Lt. Steven Rogers said, adding the patrolman who made the discovery, Harry Krzyenfski, then spotted the "FedEX" logo on the cowling piece.

"When they say they make overnight deliveries, they really mean it," Rogers deadpanned, before adding it was fortunate the incident occurred at night, instead of during the day when the piece could have "gone through a car and maybe killed somebody."

The DC-10 (file photos of type, above and below) flew on to Oakland, CA. It's unclear at this time why the cowling came off, or whether the plane's crew was aware the pieces had fallen off the aircraft. FAA investigators were inspecting the aircraft in Oakland Wednesday.

"We regret that the incident occurred and are just grateful there were no injuries or property damage as a result," said Federal Express spokeswoman Sally Davenport to the NorthJersey.com news service.

Another piece of the plane's cowling was found by a 21-year-old bartender who was returning home at about 2:40 am Tuesday morning. At the time, Lauren Suckocki says she thought the debris on her parents' yard was from an automobile accident -- until she saw the FedEx colors.

The metal piece did not stay on the family's property for long, Suckocki said.

"Everybody asked me, 'So how'd they get rid of it?' " Lauren Suchocki recalled. "I said, 'Well, the FedEx guys came and picked it up.'"

**   Report created 3/29/2006   Record 1

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: FDX1020        Make/Model: DC10      Description: DC-10 (KC-10 Extender, KDC-10)
  Date: 03/28/2006     Time: 0800

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Minor

LOCATION
  City: OAKLAND   State: CA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  FEDERAL EXPRESS FEDEX1020, A BOEING MCDONNELL DOUGLAS DC10 ACFT, WHILE
  INFLIGHT, A SECTION OF THE ENGINE COWLING FELL OFF INTO A BACKYARD, NO
  INJURIES,  ACFT LANDED WITHOUT INCIDENT, OAKLAND, CA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED

OTHER DATA

  Departed: NEWARK, NJ                  Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination: OAKLAND, CA              Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: OAKLAND, CA  (WP27)                   Entry date: 03/29/2006

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.fedex.com