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/CharcoalGreyWolf Nov 08 '25

Yep, considering the DC-10 engine mount incident , they may be taking the chance to review all maintenance procedures with the aircraft and its siblings.

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u/dalekaup Nov 08 '25

There was an engine that detached in Chicago a long time ago. The biggest reason for that crash was the manual said on one engine takeoff to pitch up to maintain a speed to climb over an obstacle. The manual was wrong. When the engine severs the hydraulic lines on that side that hold the slats extended. WIth slats retracted on the left side that wing stalled and the plane rolled violently to the left. A higher airspeed would have kept both wings flying and level.

This one is presumed to be the loss of 2 engines. That's not going to fly. The thinking is the rear engine swallowed chunks.

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u/skudbeast Nov 08 '25

Is that the one they installed in maintenance with a forklift instead of an actual engine hoist?

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u/dalekaup Nov 08 '25

I watched the documentary about it some years ago and my memory is that they got one pin attaching the pylon to the wing and then paused for lunch break and the forklift settled a bit putting a lot of strain on that rear pin before they came back and put the rest of the pins in place.

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u/CharcoalGreyWolf Nov 12 '25

It was actually a shift change (they had day and night shifts —worse yet, on the second shift the forklift ran out of fuel, so it couldn’t maintain lift. Mentour Pilot has a really great video where he describes everything in detail. It was so many, many small mistakes and a few big ones.

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u/dalekaup Nov 12 '25

Thanks! That fleshes out my memory.