both Alitalia and EVA have broken the nosewheel off MD-11 on hard touchdowns. I've seen the pix and it looks ugly...

2g+ touchdown/bounce in each case.

Alitalia was at ORD $40 mil o fix, EVA similar amount

Both stopped putting abInitio FOs in the MD11 after those incidents.

I hear the small horizontal stabilizer (almost 50% smaller than DC-10) and the pitch computer make the MD-11 twichy when it is landed from a less than stabilized approach.

There is a history of failed MLG when touchdown occurs with significant sideload on the MD-11