UPS and FedEx announced late Friday that they are grounding their McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes following a deadly crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global air hub in Louisville, Kentucky. The companies said the move was taken out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer.
MD-11s account for roughly 9 percent of UPS’s airline fleet and about 4 percent of FedEx’s fleet. Both carriers said the aircraft will remain grounded while they conduct safety reviews recommended by the manufacturer.
The crash on Tuesday killed 14 people, including the three pilots aboard the MD-11 that had been scheduled to fly to Honolulu. National Transportation Safety Board officials say the airplane was nearly airborne when an alarm sounded in the cockpit. Investigators reported that the warning began about 37 seconds after the crew called for takeoff thrust and continued for roughly 25 seconds as pilots attempted to control the aircraft. During that time the left wing was observed burning and the left-side engine had detached; the jet barely lifted off before diving back to the ground and erupting in a fireball.
The cockpit voice recorder captured the alarm, and NTSB officials said a transcript of the recording will not be released for months as part of the formal investigation. Former federal crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti told The Associated Press that the alarm likely signaled an engine fire and that the aircraft was probably past the critical decision speed at which an aborted takeoff could be executed safely.
Investigators have been reviewing video from phones, cars and security cameras that recorded the crash from multiple angles. Flight records show the MD-11, built in 1991, underwent maintenance while it was parked in San Antonio for more than a month until mid-October, but officials have not disclosed the nature of the work.
Boeing, which merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and is the manufacturer now advising the carriers, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the recommendation.
UPS Worldport is the company’s largest handling facility, employing more than 20,000 people in the region, supporting about 300 flights daily and sorting more than 400,000 packages an hour. UPS said Worldport operations resumed Wednesday night with its night sort, or Next Day Air, operation.