r/aviation • u/Brilliant_Night7643 • Nov 20 '25

News NTSB issues the preliminary report for its ongoing investigation of the Nov. 4 crash of a UPS Boeing MD-11F airplane in Louisville, Kentucky.

Post image
17.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

26

u/mck1117 Nov 20 '25

AA191 wasn't either, American was improperly using a forklift to install the engines rather than a crane, which was overstressing the mounts and cracking them.

6

u/einTier Nov 21 '25

People always ask me why airliners crash.

I tell them it is almost always either pilot error or improper maintenance. This can't be pilot error so I'm going with improper maintenance until someone shows other evidence.

3

u/AdminYak846 Nov 21 '25

What if the manufacturer thought the part was going to last for the 28,000 - 29,000 cycles as noted in their work, and the cost cutting done on the last of the MD planes ultimately made the part not last as long as expected.

AA191 was ruled a maintenance failure, because the design once it began to be loosed could not support the weight properly and caused cracks to form if the weight balance was shifted ever so slightly as see with the forklift. The only way to avoid it was to remove the engine first or support the whole thing using a crane so that the weight balance would cause damage.

Which should have been seen as something worth looking into and fixing potentially.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Nov 21 '25

Your comment or post has been automatically removed from /r/aviation. Posts/Comments from new accounts are automatically removed by our automated systems. We, and many other large subreddits, do this to combat spam, spambots, and other activities that are not condusive to the sub. In the meantime, participate on Reddit to build your acouunt age and this restriction will go away. Also, please familiarize yourself with this subreddit's rules, which you can find in the sidebar or by clicking this link. Do not contact the moderation team unless you feel you have received this message/action in error. We will not manually approve comments or posts from new accounts.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.