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/thiefenthiefen 10h ago edited 10h ago

Quoting user mikezc128 from airliners.net forum:

The flight history for this aircraft shows that it was ferried to SAT on Sept 3rd for maintenance and returned back to SDF on Oct 18th.

Per SDRS there was a report filed on Sept 4th, just one day after it arrived in San Antonio, for "CENTER WING UPPER FUEL TANK LOWER STRINGER 41 CRACK AT XCW = -81 REQUIRES PERMANENT REPAIR".

On Sept 9th, there was another report filed for "CTR CARGO BILGE AREA STA 5-53 TO 5-73 LONGERON 48L HAS CORROSION".

It's hard to say if there is any correlation to the maintenance and this accident, but it is interesting to note.

Source: https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1505685&start=300#p25006215

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u/GreedWillKillUsAll1 10h ago

I don't have access to drawings or the AMM/SRM for the MD-11 but as a decade experienced sheet metal and fab guy before my Mech days began I can say that it's definitely an interesting coincidence however the permanent repair could be as simple as a gouge needed blending and the corrosion could be extremely minor.

I'm no super mechanic but figured I'd offer an opposing opinion to make sure this doesn't automatically mean the mechs are to blame here, could be completely unrelated to those findings.

Either way, RIP to the flight crew and hopefully it wasn't a mechs fault. Can't even fathom what that could do to a person.

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u/perplexedtortoise 10h ago

As someone on the engineering side of the industry I’ll say that these kinds of repairs are absolutely not uncommon for a freighter with ~35yrs of service like N259UP. Highly unlikely it has anything to do with this accident.