Appears the engine tore off the wing, emptying the fuel and sparking that fire.
Major maintenance was performed on that plane in Oct. Current concern is the engine mount was damaged which caused a deadly crash in the 80’s or 90’s to the predecessor of this model.
It’s odd that we are still flying planes around that are 30+ years old. Most of us won’t even drive a car that old (except me).
What a tragedy. RIP to those that were lost.
It is the pyramid of economics of aircraft. Its not just the cost of the aircraft and age. A commercial aircraft can obviously fly for generations if you look at the KC-135, MD-10 conversions and the B-52. The MD-11 and its predecessor had a underlying support structure of simulators, maintainers, parts, training systems, safety protocols. When you adopt a new airframe you have all those costs to replace on top of also adopt the risks of a new airplane… 737 Max ring a bell.
Flight 191 was in 1979 on a 10 series DC-10. Pylons are checked on every A check. This could be a structural problem like the 191 flight, or the China Airlines 358, a 747 that lost an engine and while departing the aircraft it took its neighboring engine with it, so it’s not necessarily a MD-11 issue. The engine simply could have taken a bird and shaken itself to death and depart the airframe.
The bigger question is why did the aircraft not continue to climb out as it should still be 2 engine capable, or did another engine take a crap when they firewalled the throttles to get into the air.
Since I have seen footage of debris from the one engine on the runway, is it possible that some of that debris went into the engine on the tail, leaving it with one working engine?
Yes. It is possible. It is a giant vacuum cleaner on the top of the jet sucking everything in. That is why all the antenna’s on the top of an MD-11 and DC-10 have anti ice piped to each one so an ice ball does not form on an antenna and enter the engine.
The number one engine could have detonated sent pieces down the #2 engine, but it is all speculative till the FDC gets found and analyzed and see what engines were at what setting doing what amount of thrust. For all we know the engine came apart and sent shrapnel through key flight control systems/redundancies like in Sioux City.
I just cannot imagine being in the seat watching the ground coming up with the throttles mashed into the gauges and the stick shaker going off while the GPWS is saying “Whoop Whoop. Terrain, Terrian, Pull Up!” Makes me nauseous.
Good briefing. They have the FDC and the CVR so answers will be sooner rather than later.
Watched that live. It’s a nice change to have an organized and professional group of people on this.
No mention of one political party or the other causing the crash (yet)…. Unless I missed that elsewhere.
I loved the part where he read back the question before answering it. Mark of a true professional.
On the ground, in that fire.
Hopefully, UPS’ current business issues are not related to this event.
No need to spread paranoid speculation so I will not.
I’m not thinking that at all actually. I’m thinking old plane and recent maintenance. I doubt that that UPS is hiring people off the street to service their fleet.
Either way, it’s a terrible tragedy.
We probably won’t know for sure the theory of what happened for a year. I’m not sure that there has ever been a larger debris field for a crash on land so we may never know.
@VTR is our resident expert on planes. Very interesting information shared.
They already have the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder so I think we will have rough data in a few weeks/months. The final report could easily take a year.
I imagine UPS already has some data already because ACARS updates all kinds of stuff via satellite when an aircraft has various warnings or cautions come on in the automation, to alert maintenance and dispatchers.
Just a guy with a series of unexpected unique events changing his career choices. Now that I folded up the uniform and have grown a beard, I have not touched the controls of an airplane for 3 years now and outside of flying privately with friends, I never will again.
I would defer to anyone currently flying or teaching in the simulators for the most up to date relevant knowledge on this subject matter.
Yeah, if you look at the last 3 pic I posted you can see where after lift off it started to come back down. It took out some roof o one UPS warehouse and then went fully down in a business area.
2 businesses hit …
12 confirmed dead, 1 child (probably at the auto store)
11 injured
Now they’re saying “unknown” on the missing
They are already giving details like location of fan blade pieces, engine and ADSB speed and altitude data even though anyone can look that up on flight aware or ADSB exchange. I am glad they will not be releasing the full cockpit audio, as I have had the privilege of listening to several recordings as part of a safety review of an accident for the military, and it can be very hard to listen to.
Once again, Todd Inman is a spectacular leader as he clearly repeats each question before he answers it and stays on point for each one. That is what a real leader/spokesperson looks like after a crisis/emergency.
For those still interested…
“the left engine pylon was still attached to the pylon when the engine separated from the wing”.. If I hear that correctly, that means it is not the same issue as flight 191, where the engine separated from the pylon due to elongation and stress on the connection between due to maintenance procedures and forklift equipment back in the 1970’s.
Engines are commonly removed from pylons, pylons are not commonly removed from aircraft in my limited maintenance experience.
Todd Inman needs to teach classes on how to do press briefings on emergencies. A lot of police, fire, politicians could certainly learn how to inform the public, at this level of accuracy and confidence.
In the first 3 minutes, he has expressed sympathy for the community, reminded everyone how tough this is for the families involved, thanked the first responders, thanked the 500+'responders and helpers since the tragedy, spelled his colleague’s name without being asked, and shined a light on how the community has come together–all while speaking calmly, clearly, and authoritatively.
I’ll watch the rest when there’s less dust in my eyes.
We need a law or something that requires all politicians and emergency public information officers to pass the “Todd Inman public speaking after a tragedy” exam.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/us/ups-fedex-cargo-planes-grounded.html
There are around 70 MD-11 cargo planes in service. UPS said in its statement Friday that MD-11s are around 9 percent of its fleet. FedEx has 28 MD-11s, about 4 percent of its fleet.
I think there used to be. Professional communication skills have gone to ■■■■ over the last 10 years, almost universally.
In my experience, professionalism is a top down progress, because a great leader can set the standards for every subordinate as well as expect it from the leaders beneath them. It does not work the other way due to implied authority going back up the org tree.
I had a commander who was a “nepo baby” a long time ago. It took a decade after they were gone to get professionalism back to the entire unit. Everything from grooming standards, to flying evaluations, to general professional conduct in uniform, was dragged down from a single entitled person who sat at a desk for a few years.
The sad part was they were actually a good person trying to do the right thing, but daddy’s legacy was propelling them faster than their skills/experience would allow, hurting the entire organization.
