America suspends the use of MD-11 cargo planes

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) ordered the suspension of all 11-MD cargo planes to conduct a safety review, after one of them recently crashed in Kentucky.

The decision comes after a McDonnell Douglas 11-MD plane belonging to the fleet of the American shipping company UPS exploded and caught fire after it crashed shortly after take-off from Louisville Airport last Tuesday, killing 14 people.

Last Friday, UPS and FedEx shipping companies announced the suspension of the use of this model, while Boeing, which owns McDonnell Douglas, recommended to all operators of these aircraft to stop using them for now.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates air navigation in the United States, issued an emergency directive last Saturday “prohibiting any additional flights until the aircraft is inspected and all corrective measures are implemented.”

The directive affects the “11-MD” and “MD-11F” models, according to the authority, which said that it comes “as a result of an accident during which the left engine separated from the aircraft during takeoff,” and it concluded that “this unsafe situation likely exists or may occur in other products of the same design model.”

Last Friday, UPS announced the suspension of the use of 11-MD aircraft, which constitute about 9% of its fleet.

She explained: “In the interest of safety, we decided to temporarily stop the fleet of (11-MD) aircraft. We took this decision proactively based on the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer.”

In turn, FedEx announced that it had suspended the use of 28 “11-MD” aircraft out of its total fleet, which includes about 700 aircraft.

Boeing, which acquired the manufacturer McDonnell Douglas in 1997, confirmed that it “recommended the three companies operating the (11-MD) cargo model to suspend flights until additional engineering analysis is conducted.”

The third company that uses this model is Western Global Airlines.

The plane, loaded with about 38,000 gallons of fuel (equivalent to about 900 barrels of oil) on a long flight to Hawaii, almost collided with a major Ford car assembly plant, where about 3,000 people worked.

Aerial footage of the fall site showed a long trail of debris, while firefighters sprayed water to put out the flames amid the smoke.

Todd Inman, a member of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), announced that the plane’s two black boxes, i.e. the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, had been found and would be sent to Washington for analysis.

The death toll rose to 14 after an additional body was found at the site, according to what Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced, writing on X: “Please pray for these families, the residents of Louisville and all those affected by this terrible incident.”

This number of victims is the largest in the history of UPS, whose headquarters is located in Worldport in Louisville, where it employs thousands of people.

The plane, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, was manufactured in 1991 and was modified to be used for cargo purposes.