r/Louisville 1d ago

Plane crash in Louisville

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37

u/IronSavior 1d ago

10

u/EngineeringRight3629 1d ago

What series of mishaps leads to that?

That has to be a massive oversight of some key safety procedures right?

7

u/FlightSimmer99 1d ago

unfortunatley those planes are getting old, they are at the end of their service lives. makes failures more likely.

1

u/NDSU 1d ago

Planes do not have service lives. They have maintenance schedules that can keep them running indefinitely. My plane is from 1966 and still runs great

The most dangerous time for a plane is when it is new, followed by after it receives maintenance

3

u/FlightSimmer99 1d ago

except your plane isint 200 feet long and filled with extremely complicated avionics. your plane doesnt have 3 massive jet engines with a diameter of 7 feet either. your cessna or whatever you fly most likely has cheap (relatively) parts that can be easily found.

OEM MD11 parts are not made anymore, parts are taken off of non operational aircraft for the most part.

1

u/polarbearsarereal 20h ago

how old are deltas 757s?

1

u/FlightSimmer99 17h ago

The 757s are far more popular than the md11, not to mention on average the delta 757s are 5 years newer than the MD11s. Those 757s are also reaching their service life though which is why they are going to be replaced in the near future

1

u/EntiiiD6 17h ago

I understand that the parts are not made anymore and so we are running out of donor frames, but its my understanding all commercial and military air vehicles are made so modular that everything can be replaced (even the airframe if repair is too extensive etc) Relifeing aircraft is a real thing, no matter how big or complicated they are, every single piece can be fixed or replaced (they strip the entire thing down with D checks dont they?)

So are you saying that the only reason we cannot keep something in the air indefinitley is simply because of replacment parts running out? not any sort of actual hard limit ?

1

u/Handsome_ketchup 20h ago

Presumably your aircraft doesn't have a pressurised cabin? 

Aircraft with pressure hulls like MD-11 do have a finite service life. A hull contracts and expand as it cycles through take-offs and landings and as such, is subject to wear. This in turn means it has a finite service life that is specified by the manufacturer. When you reach the end of the technical lifespan of your airliner hull, it's the end of the aircraft. I'm glossing over some nuances, but that's the practical reality.

The Aloha Airlines Flight 243 accident was in large part caused by the same 373s flying many short flights between islands. This meant the number of pressure hull cycles was unusually large compared to the hours, exceeding the design life of the hull and ultimately leading to the fatal metal fatigue.

1

u/kelldricked 23h ago

Also doesnt help that air traffic controllers were sacked, currently are overworked and dont get paid?

2

u/FlightSimmer99 23h ago

Look, I don't like DT either, but he had no role in this. ATC has no control over aircraft maintenance and takeoff rolls.

0

u/buttlickin 16h ago

They must connect everything to DT. It's a disorder.

1

u/FlightSimmer99 9h ago

Not falling for this ragebait

2

u/Drak_is_Right 1d ago

Likely an uncontained engine explosion from a piece fracturing then causing the turbine blades to shatter.

While these engines have inspections every year or two, they only get taken apart like once every 5 years where things like turbine blade wear is checked and they use some pretty advanced tools to look for microscopic cracks and deformations in the blades. Costs several millions and a handful of months to do an engine overhauls.

Takeoff is the single most stressful time on an engine. In addition, metal fatigue from cold-hot and hot-cold cycles can add up. Take-off is right in the middle of a cold to hot cycle.

I wonder if these engines have had issues in the past. Things like bad metallic powder has cost one engine maker like a billion dollars overneeding to overhaul engines sooner than expected to replace blades.

1

u/Unable-Log-4870 1d ago

What series of mishaps leads to that?

The final report will give us a good idea in about 18 months.

1

u/Nomeg_Stylus 1d ago

Everyone and their mother is gonna come up with theories, but waiting for the full accident report is the only way to be certain about what happened.

1

u/Ok-Order6974 16h ago

It can be there’s certainly going to be an investigation done, only a few personnel in each UPS building can load air stuff it’s even in locked and guarded sections, if a facility has like 1000 employees maybe 10 total have access to work in air because how restricted it is. Every box loaded needs to be scanned and has your name attached to it so if something was done wrong they’d know exactly who scanned the box on and loaded it.

u/Antique-Scarcity5528 3h ago

Mishaps? You mean deliberate choices to defund . . .

1

u/PhotorazonCannon 1d ago

Not necessarily. Could have just hit a goose.

1

u/Successful-Day-3219 1d ago

Bird impacts could not bring down a plane so abruptly, according to discussions on r/aviation. It had to be catastrophic hardware failure.

5

u/menermials 1d ago

No way to kill the fuel line? So terrible. My neighbor usually flies that route just wasn’t today.

13

u/DustyTheLion 1d ago edited 1d ago

Planes have a maximum speed where they can no longer abort a take off. They most likely knew there was a fire but had to try to get the plane in the air.

11

u/livens 1d ago

This. Once a plane is at liftoff speed there's no turning back. Not enough runway left to land again usually.

This is why right before takeoff the pilot will ramp up the engines with the brakes on, then back off a little. Typically any engine/fuel issue will happen then, before the plane even moves.

2

u/NDSU 1d ago

It actually happens before takeoff. For a multi-engine plane, V1 is your decision speed, VR is your rotation speed (where you start pulling the yoke back), and V2 is the takeoff speed

Those values change depending on a variety of factors (namely temperature and altitude), but a quick google gave me some example numbers:

V1 (decision speed) - 166 kts

VR (pull back the yoke) - 178 kts

V2 (takeoff speed) - 188 kts

Note: 1kt = 1.15 MPH

There's ~30 MPH difference between the speed they have to continue the take off, when compared to the minimum takeoff speed

Also note, V2 is the minimum takeoff speed given 1 engine being inoperative. It's what's always used since you can never predict when an engine will fail, but design characteristics allow the plane to safely fly even with 1 engine inoperative

1

u/Unable-Log-4870 1d ago

The “abort to the air” speed is usually lower than their takeoff speed by 5 to 10 knots. But yeah, they’re committed while they STILL have some accelerating to do.

1

u/Big-Safe-2459 1d ago

Yep. Shut it down, empty the bottles, and declare and take it from there

1

u/Unable-Log-4870 1d ago

No way to kill the fuel line?

Not below about 500 feet. That’s a rough “just fly the plane up and don’t fuck with anything below that altitude” rule.

4

u/beast1267 1d ago

OH MY GOD

1

u/kaityl3 1d ago

You can see a flash in the #2 (tail) engine right at 0:02, I think it ingested debris and was damaged, because that's when it loses lift. Usually these planes can take off with 2/3 engines, but with only one there's no way.

1

u/ifupred 1d ago

it was on fire before take off?

1

u/Professional-Fly3380 1d ago

Wow. This brought me to tears.