The New York Times is reporting that Boeing told operators that the failure of parts cited by the NTSB as potentially contributing to the crash of a UPS MD-11 in November “would not result in a safety of flight condition.” Boeing issued a service letter in 2011 after cracks had been found in four spherical bearing assemblies that attach the engine pylon to the wing of aircraft in the DC-10 and its derivatives. The bearing was found fractured in the aircraft that barreled into an airport industrial area after the left engine separated as it was lifting off from Louisville Airport for Honolulu on Nov. 4. “The spherical bearing race, which is normally one piece and housed within the lugs of the aft mount bulkhead, was found fractured into forward and aft portions,” the report said.
The Times said the service letter ordered visual inspection of the attachment every five years and the accident aircraft was in compliance. Boeing has not commented on the Times report. All airworthy aircraft in that family are now grounded pending development of a fix for the issue. The crash killed three crew and 12 people on the ground. Boeing became the type certificate holder of the aircraft after its merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. The full NTSB update is below.
Looking at the one graph, the center engine’s (2) fluctuations can be understandable given the amount of flames/hot gasses it was ingesting from the wing fire not withstanding it may have also ingested parts of engine one as it was flying up and over the plane. From there, could it have produced just enough thrust to do more then help carry the plane to its end, not able to help it gain lift?
I am really really hoping this accident is attributed to bad timing of metal fatigue and not maintenance irregularities because Boeing was like “Nothing to see here” ( Boeing told operators that the failure of parts cited by the NTSB as potentially contributing to the crash of a UPS MD-11 in November “would not result in a safety of flight condition.””
Still, this sounds so typical of Boeing. Boeing, our motto “Safety is an option you can buy otherwise, We didn’t do it”.
Typical post McDD ‘merger’, anyway.
But Wall Street was happy. And management made bank.
That is what matters most.
RIP US aviation leadership.
RIP UPS brothers.
It’s an unfortunate tragedy for all. The fact remains that this was issued in 2011 and the aircraft have operated for over 14 years with no issues. The term “safety of flight” is normally utilized to allow continued operation with additional inspection – not to imply “no failures” will occur. Aviation is full of events in which the inspection timeline established has later been modified as a result of a failure in between inspections.
Thanks for this information Mr. Niles. Good reporting as usual.