Posted on 01/15/2026 3:34:25 AM PST by DFG
Boeing warned plane owners in 2011 about a broken part that contributed to a UPS plane crash that killed 15 last year but at that point the plane manufacturer didn’t believe it threatened safety, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.
The UPS plane crashed in November 2025 shortly after taking off in Louisville, Kentucky, when the left engine flew off the wing as the plane rolled down the runway. Three pilots on the plane that was headed for Hawaii were killed along with 12 more people on the ground near Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport.
The NTSB said Wednesday that Boeing had documented in 2011 there were four previous failures of a part that helps secure the MD-11’s engines to the wings on three different planes, but at that point the plane manufacturer “determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition.” These planes were actually built by McDonnell Douglas, which was later bought by Boeing.
The NTSB previously said investigators found cracks in some of the parts that held the engine to the wing. Those cracks hadn’t been caught in regular maintenance done on the plane, which raised questions about the adequacy of the maintenance schedule. The last time those key engine mount parts were examined closely was in October 2021, and the plane wasn’t due for another detailed inspection for roughly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings.
2015 crash brings up issues from 1979 crash It’s not clear when the cracks started to develop in the parts that helped hold the engine on the wing, but this crash is reminiscent of a 1979 crash in Chicago when the left engine flew off an American Airlines DC-10 during takeoff, killing 273 people. The DC-10 was the predecessor of the MD-11.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
MD engineering and management has ruined Boeing.
Looks like a lesson not learned.
Possibly, but this situation is caused by the maintainance contractors lifting the engine using a forklift from underneath instead of a sling from above. The methodology was determined to cause metal fatigue that led to fatal crashes back in the 1970s.
Despite specific prohibition of the technique, the maintainance company was using it.
“ , but this situation is caused by the maintenance contractors lifting the engine using a forklift from underneath instead of a sling from above. ”
The Chicago crash was blamed on maintenance using a forklift. I doubt seriously that a forklift was ever used on the MD11. Everyone in the maintenance industry has been through extensive training focusing on that DC-10 incident. They would have to be idiots to do that again.
However, if some overseas contractors worked on it that could be the case.
Doubt no more. There were extensive posts here on FR back when the crash occured. The maintenance company, located in Texas, was using a forklift in order to save time and money. They aren't idiots, they're criminals.
Airline maintenance procedures and PMIs were not adequate to inspect the bushing despite being notified that the condition could occur.
I was living in Chicago when that crash happened, and that anyone would even think about doing anything other than following specific maintenance protocol for planes with those types of engine mounts is beyond belief. That flight was horribly tragic.
Are you saying that the maintenance being performed on the UPS plane in 2025 was using the same technique that caused the 1979 crash? If so, that's big-time criminal, but what is your source for this claim?
I'd have to go digging back to November. A report surfaced when the FAA grounded the MD-11 fleet after the UPS crash, identifying that stress cracks were found on other aircraft that had been serviced at the San Antonio maintenance facility.
That specific aircraft was in for major repairs in September and October, just prior to the November crash.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/ntsb-finds-fatigue-cracks-in-ups-md-11-engine-mount-linking-to-dc-10-failures/ss-AA1QSsVW#image=1
There was something at the time where all the other airframes in addition to MD-11s that were grounded were inspected and not found to have cracks from fatigue over time, pointing to the UPS plane having cracks from being overstressed as was the pylon in the 1979 crash.
I realize that they found similar stress cracks to the 1979 crash, but I hadn’t heard they were using the same “engine + pylon” procedure that was used in 1979.
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