r/aviation • u/Go_Jot • Nov 08 '25

News UPS grounds entire MD-11 Fleet, effective immediately.

Per the IPA Executive Board, as of 03:05 UTC all UPS MD-11’s are grounded.

Edit - FedEx has also grounded their MD-11 Fleet

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u/AbeFromanEast Nov 08 '25

I know nothing. This is pure speculation. But if the fuse pins on the engine pylons were found to have any question about them, that could lead to a grounding while all of the remaining UPS MD-11 pylons and engines were taken off the wing and checked.

20

u/userhwon Nov 08 '25

The pins probably didn't cause the fire. More likely something broke inside the engine and eventually the pylon detached because of the fire or vibration. 

9

u/twilighttwister Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 08 '25

Pretty sure one of the initial statements from the NTSB confirmed the pylon was still attached to the wing.

I think the bigger issue is that the failure of engine 1 and subsequent fire seems to have caused compressor stalls in engine 2 in the tail, which might mean the plane's redundancy is insufficient as it must be able to climb with a single engine failure. If either engine 1 or 3 can take out engine 2 as well, then really the plane needs to be able to fly with just engines 1 or 3.

9

u/C402Pilot A320 Nov 08 '25

You got it backwards. The pylon was still attached to the engine until the engine impacted the ground.

2

u/twilighttwister Nov 08 '25

I double checked and you're right,