BREAKING: UPS MD-11F Crashes Shortly After Takeoff In Louisville

Looking at the video that @Troll linked above, JB suspects a stage 2 turbine loss of containment after rotation, similar to an AA incident.

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That’s the same video I’m linking to above with the comment about the aural alert.
It’s sort of a hen or egg discussion.
Did the engine come lose because it destroyed itself and the mount, or was it destroyed because it came lose…

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Oops. I think that they have security camera video of the pylon and engine being intact when it separated from the wing, and coming apart when it struck the ground. JB says that they were doiing 184 kt when the fire bells began ringing, With evidence of compressor stall on no. 2 engine, it’s a worst case scenario it seems.

MD-11 are grounded now.

When did the last MD-11 come off the assembly line?

Wheels

October 2000, If memory serves me correct

Is it typical for the FAA to issue an Emergency Air Directive or is the an indicator of this being a bigger issue?

There have been engine attachment failures before. It happened to a coworker of mine flying a civilian tanker 707. On takeoff the number 2 engine flew off and damaged number one as it corkscrewed away into oblivion (I’ve told this story before here, sorry). He, my buddy, rotated but with the loss of 1 1/2 engines on a fully loaded jet further flight was impossible. The plane began to roll. He forced it on before all control was lost. The jet hit a ditch and broke apart. The forward half came to rest just shy of a seawall. The two pilots and flight engineer ended up slogging through a muck up to their knees as a wall of flames raced towards them. They survived pretty miraculously. Turns out, there was an AD from the 60s to replace the pylon mounts with titanium fasteners. This AD was never complied with on this jet (owned by a very disreputable character).

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Phew! Forget about ever buying another lottery ticket, you have just used up all your luck :astonished:

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Sounds like the

Summary

Omega company accident.

Wheels

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Yep. There’s even news helicopter footage of them escaping away in the muck. (Apparently there’s always spare news helicopters just hovering around in SoCal. One was on scene in minutes.)

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Holy cow that crew was both lucky and good!

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Yeah it is not uncommon, in particular when something happens in such a violent way. This one has not MOC/AMOC so it is just a way to keep the fleet grounded for now.

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More info on that one:

I had a friend who was stationed up there when it happened.

He suffered hugely from that event. I mean REALLY suffered. The FAA and NTSB haunted him and hounded him. What’s cool and touching is Sully reached out to him months later. He was in the checkout line at K-Mart and THE Sully called simply to lend some support. There are good people in this world. Not nearly enough. But they just about make up for the rest of us who generally suck.

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This is even worse than I thought.

Edit: forgot the link:
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA26MA024.aspx

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OMFG… Absolutely nothing to do.
Terrible.

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Yep. It happened exactly when the last wheel left the ground it seems.

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The NTSB report is quite interesting, so far it mostly focusses on the wing clevis and mount lugs but it did find fatigue cracking that then became a stress crack. Could perhaps be the root cause of engine departure but it is all still very early.

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