UPS Plane Crash: Fatigue Cracks Found in Federal Report
- Here's a breakdown of the key details from the provided text, focusing on the UPS plane crash and related incidents:
- * What happened: A UPS MD-11 cargo plane crashed in an industrial area near Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport.
- * 1979 - American Airlines Flight 191 (Chicago): A DC-10 engine separated during takeoff, leading to a crash that killed 273 people.
Here’s a breakdown of the key details from the provided text, focusing on the UPS plane crash and related incidents:
UPS Flight 2976 Crash (Louisville, 2024):
* What happened: A UPS MD-11 cargo plane crashed in an industrial area near Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport.
* Sequence of events: The plane climbed to 30 feet, cleared a fence, hit a UPS warehouse roof with its landing gear, then struck a storage yard and two other buildings (including a petroleum recycling facility). It was largely consumed by fire.
* Cause (Initial Examination): The NTSB is investigating, but metal fatigue is a potential factor.
* Fleet Grounding: The FAA grounded the MD-11 fleet (used by UPS and FedEx) after the crash.
Past Incidents of Metal Fatigue & engine Failure:
* 1979 – American Airlines Flight 191 (Chicago): A DC-10 engine separated during takeoff, leading to a crash that killed 273 people.
* 2018 – Southwest Airlines Flight 1380: An uncontained engine failure killed a passenger.
* 2016 – Southwest Airlines Flight (New orleans to Orlando): An engine blew, causing damage to the wing. The NTSB determined a fan blade broke due to metal fatigue.
About the Plane:
* Type: MD-11 (a 34-year-old tri-engine widebody jet)
* History: Delivered to Thai Airways in 1991, acquired by UPS in 2006.
* Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas (later merged with Boeing in 1997).
The article emphasizes that while plane crashes caused by metal fatigue are rare, they have occurred before, and the NTSB investigation into the UPS crash is ongoing.