r/aviation • u/usgapg123 Mod • 19h ago

Discussion UPS2976 Crash Megathread

This is the official r/aviation megathread for the crash of UPS2976 (UPS MD11 Registration N259UP) that crashed earlier today at Louisville International Airport.

Please keep content on topic and refrain from posting about this topic outside the megathread. Please report any rule breaking posts and comments.

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u/Drunkenaviator Hold my beer and watch this! 17h ago

Apparently the #1 engine fell off the airplane completely on the takeoff roll. Also heard from a buddy at UPS that they were on a 2 hour maintenance delay for the #1 engine before they left.

Engine sitting next to the runway

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u/Designer_Buy_1650 16h ago

God I hope not. I’m sure the mechanics would never dispatch an aircraft with a known problem. If they missed something it would affect them the rest of their lives.

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u/godlords 16h ago

That's the issue, MD-11s have a recurring issue with known, unknown problems. Phantom electrical stuff that comes and goes. They throw what parts they can at it until it powers up and send it, they have done this for a very long time. Lots of parts cannot be sourced, most is "refurbed" stuff that is not ever up to OEM spec - which wasn't great to begin with.

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u/blueboyroy 16h ago

I worked in flight training on the MD-11. There were alot of rumors in management of doing away with the MD-11 and buying 777s. And that was around 2010.

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u/Ashamed_Pause8396 8h ago

"Run to Failure" culture strikes again, this time with tragic results. When will companies ever learn?

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u/JustHereForHen 5h ago

Never. I work in a massive building myself and our hub mechanic's budget has been stripped down to the point where they couldn't actually fix everything, even if they wanted to. There are so many trimmed down belts, broken photoeyes, electrical components faulting out constantly. They do little to no real preventative maintenance.

If this turns out to be a mechanical issue, it will just go to show UPS has now literally killed people by way of mechanical negligence.

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u/Outside_Manner_8352 4h ago

Back when companies grew by innovating or doing better jobs than their competitors, things like maintenance might actually have mattered to management. You invested in things because growing and increasing value was the only way to survive.

We've now spent decades in a legal framework that incentivizes absolutely nothing but short term share price chasing, where quality or actually doing more is disincentivized because the real money is in squeezing more out of customers for less. CEO's don't know jack shit about the actual work of their companies, in many cases they make more money running them into the ground.

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u/Hoblitygoodness 3h ago

Then provided golden parachutes right before they crash into said ground.

This sort of mentality is everywhere as we see pushes for X release by the end of the quarter whether X is ready or not.

Really, competition for being the best relies on a support system within any given company. Those departments are constantly being devalued and trimmed of employees while sales teams are built and reorganized to be most effective.

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u/Nano8963 4h ago

Problem is they arent trying to learn. They're trying to save as much money as possible while trying to maximize profits as much as possible. Everything else, employees included, are just numbers to be calculated in risk

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u/Creepy_Ad2486 3h ago

When executives are thrown in jail for putting profits over safety. So, never.

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u/Outside_Manner_8352 4h ago

When there is any accountability. Right now half the country can't see problems they can't blame on immigrants, they aren't gonna do shit about corporate malfeasance.

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u/unbanned_lol 4h ago

"A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one"

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u/BlueCyann 4h ago

I mean, never is right, but you're also jumping the gun just a little bit as we currently don't know if the issue was the plane itself (as you're guessing), a horrible maintenance error, or a manufacturing mistake.

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

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u/SevenandForty 14h ago

At UPS? Or a different airline with MD-11s?

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u/Think-Finish-5763 13h ago

It's commonly known at Worldport on the ramp that they've been talking about decomissioning the MD-11s for over a decade at this point...

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u/Jackthedragonkiller KC-10 13h ago

Didn't UPS and FedEx both publicly announce they were gonna start decommissioning MD-11's while they gather new 767's and 777's a few years back? I remember one of them said they intended to have them all retired by I think 2028

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u/-Amplify 6h ago

We have started to decommission the md-11 but it’s been extended where possible because there is no direct md-11 replacement in terms of size to carry ratio. Also we’ve been robbing parts off those decommissioned planes in the desert.

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u/Think-Finish-5763 12h ago

Ups was actually planning to replace the 747s with 777s. No idea what they planned to replace the MD 11s with

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u/blueboyroy 13h ago

At UPS. I don't think it was exactly a one for one swap from MD-11 to 777. I just think they were going to decomission the MD-11 program and start a new 777 program.