{"id":393301,"date":"2025-11-20T23:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/393301\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T23:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:22:19","slug":"doomed-ups-plane-had-cracks-in-engine-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/393301\/","title":{"rendered":"Doomed UPS plane had cracks in engine mount"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal investigators released dramatic photos Thursday of an engine flying off a doomed UPS cargo plane that crashed two weeks ago in Kentucky, killing 14 people,<\/a> and said there was evidence of cracks in the left wing\u2019s engine mount.<\/p>\n

A series of six photos showed the rear of the engine starting to detach before it flew up and over the wing as flames erupted. The next image shows the wing engulfed by fire as the burning engine flies above it. The last image shows the plane starting to get airborne.<\/p>\n

But the MD-11 plane only got 30 feet (9.1 meters) off the ground, the National Transportation Safety Board said, citing the flight data recorder in its first formal but preliminary report<\/a> about the Nov. 4 disaster in Louisville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Three pilots<\/a> on the plane were killed along with 11 more people on the ground near Muhammad Ali International Airport.<\/p>\n

The NTSB said the plane was not due yet for a detailed inspection of key engine mount parts that had fractures. It still needed to complete nearly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings. It was last examined in October 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears UPS was conducting this maintenance within the required time frame, but I\u2019m sure the FAA is now going to ponder whether that time frame is adequate,\u201d former federal crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti told The Associated Press after reading the report.<\/p>\n

All MD-11s grounded for now<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear when the cracks started to develop on the 34-year-old plane and whether they could have been missed in that earlier inspection. Another aviation expert, John Cox, described fatigue cracks as \u201cnormal wear and tear on an aircraft.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said a metal part, like the engine mount that vibrates every time the plane flies, will eventually develop cracks. Cox noted it\u2019s just a question of how often those parts need to be inspected and what maintenance is required.<\/p>\n

The NTSB report revealed the first new details since board member Todd Inman briefed reporters<\/a> on Nov. 7. He said the cockpit voice recorder captured an alarm bell going off about 37 seconds after the UPS crew called for takeoff thrust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to be involved in a natural disaster and another thing to be involved in a man-made, human error tragedy, and that\u2019s what we believe this is,\u201d said Sean Garber, who looked at the report and whose auto salvage yard near the airport took a direct hit.<\/p>\n

All MD-11s used by UPS, FedEx and Western Global \u2014 along with a few related DC-10s \u2014 were grounded after the crash until they can be inspected and repaired, but the Federal Aviation Administration hasn\u2019t said what will be required.<\/p>\n

Cox said those air carriers \u201care going to have to make some hard decisions\u201d because they were already planning to retire the planes in the next few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have to pull the engines off and do some sort of visual inspection or replacement, that\u2019s going to run into a significant cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MD-11 aircraft make up about 9% of the UPS fleet and 4% of the FedEx fleet, the companies have said.<\/p>\n

UPS will wait for crash conclusions <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Bill Moore, president of UPS Airlines, an arm of UPS, said the company is working with investigators to determine the key cause of the crash. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we determine that, then they\u2019ll be able to develop an inspection plan,\u201d Moore said at a news conference in Louisville. \u201cCan we inspect it? If so, how do we repair it? How do we put it back together? And then eventually return the fleet to service. But that\u2019s not going to happen quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NTSB report said there was a similar event in Chicago in 1979 when an American Airlines DC-10 crash killed 273 people. The DC-10 was the predecessor of the MD-11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe left engine and pylon assembly and about 3 ft of the leading edge of the left wing separated from the airplane and fell to the runway,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Former federal crash investigator Alan Diehl said he hopes the Federal Aviation Administration reevaluates plane maintenance schedules and considers high-tech methods to examine metal, not just visual inspections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that engine pylon attachment failures are these aircraft\u2019s Achilles\u2019 heels,\u201d Diehl said.<\/p>\n

The MD-11 and the DC-10 have some of the highest accident rates of any commercial planes, according to statistics published annually by Boeing. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, mourning continued in Louisville, more than two weeks after the tragedy. The Louisville Orchestra was presenting a free concert Thursday evening. <\/p>\n

\u201cMusic brings comfort,\u201d Music Director Teddy Abrams said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal investigators released dramatic photos Thursday of an engine flying off a doomed UPS cargo plane that crashed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":393302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[186846,3881,12167,186849,64,12104,57,141274,186845,357,28022,181121,43083,1571,520,50,518,186848,186847,174610,522,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-393301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-alan-diehl","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-aviation-safety","12":"tag-bill-moore","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-federal-aviation-administration","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-jeff-guzzetti","17":"tag-john-cox","18":"tag-kentucky","19":"tag-ky-state-wire","20":"tag-local-news-for-apple","21":"tag-louisville","22":"tag-national","23":"tag-national-transportation-safety-board","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-plane-crashes","26":"tag-sean-garber","27":"tag-teddy-abrams","28":"tag-todd-inman","29":"tag-transportation","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115584601237923828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}