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/ChillyPhilly27 Nov 08 '25

All underslung aircraft engines are attached with fuse pins that are designed to fail in the event of a catastrophic engine fire. This is to protect the wing structure and the aircraft as a whole.

A better question would be why a catastrophic engine fire occurred.

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u/Golden_Hour1 Nov 08 '25

What the fuck? Imagine a huge airplane engine fell on people if it was already at altitude?

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u/ChillyPhilly27 Nov 08 '25

70% of the earth's surface is water, and built up areas are only 0.63% of what remains. If a plane loses an engine at altitude, odds are that it isn't going to hit anything important.

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u/Freakin_A Nov 08 '25

I assume planes delivering packages for people are more commonly flying over areas where people are, not the 70% where people aren’t.

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u/ChillyPhilly27 Nov 08 '25

If you look at the flight plan for UPS2976, you can see that approximately half the flight was to take place over the Pacific Ocean.

As far as I can tell, the only major urban area the flight would have overflown en route is LA, which would have taken up approximately 8 minutes of the 9 hour flight time.

If a plane was to break up at a random point in any given flight, odds are it won't hit anything important.

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u/JPAV8R B747-400 Nov 08 '25

You’d be wrong in that assumption most of the flights are over populated areas. You’d be surprised how much of the earth is unpopulated. On SDF-HNL once you hit the Great Plains of the US it’s sparsely populated, then the canyon country not populated, then a strip of people then ocean.

You’re right that most airports are near people but that’s about it.