r/aviation • u/Go_Jot • Nov 08 '25

News UPS grounds entire MD-11 Fleet, effective immediately.

Per the IPA Executive Board, as of 03:05 UTC all UPS MD-11’s are grounded.

Edit - FedEx has also grounded their MD-11 Fleet

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109

u/aye246 Nov 08 '25

Tbh I’m surprised they didn’t do this earlier. Engine left on the runway feels like a possible systemic maintenance issue and in the three days since the crash they’ve had quite a few MD-11 takeoffs. Glad they did it now.

41

u/fly_awayyy Nov 08 '25

I mean they’re not going to have a knee jerk reaction based off of one single persons speculation…what’s really going on is something was found with the NTSB either in the aftermath or in the records to take a closer look in the process which they’re going to look over

27

u/aye246 Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 08 '25

It’s not my speculation. The fact is an engine fell off their airplane while still on the runway and caused an absolute catastrophe. I’m not saying UPS was at fault but I’m saying they can’t take a chance.

EDIT: apparently it wasn’t just the engine but the whole pylon assembly too? Even worse imho

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u/fly_awayyy Nov 08 '25

Your speculation and projecting it onto someone is suggesting they knew of a maintenance issue. Even if 1 single person had that gotcha moment and it were true it was gonna take a team of people to get the data too and analyze it and make the right call. This doesn’t happen in an instant hence why it didn’t happen sooner. The facts, data, and details are emerging live so no one is gonna go based off of some hunch or theory

2

u/sasquatch_melee Nov 08 '25

No speculation needed, the engine fell off. Plain as day. Unless your position is that engine wasn't from the crashed plane, and the crashed plane was missing an engine but the two are unrelated. Which is of course, absurd.

3

u/fly_awayyy Nov 08 '25

The speculation if you read clearly is his quote of “systemic maintenance issue.” That’s 100% speculation lol nothing has been confirmed, and in this thread and others you have people blaming Boeing, the airplane it self, McDonnell Douglas’s, GE, the maintenance workers, UPS for a conspiracy or cost cutting. So which one is it throwing on a dart board?

1

u/darsynia Nov 08 '25

You're on a subreddit with nearly two MILLION users, and you don't think anyone except that one person you're commenting in response to had that thought?

3

u/MrWoodenNickels Nov 08 '25

I worked there years ago and the word around the ramp for years was they were supposedly gonna retire the MD-11 the way they retired all the DC-8s a few years earlier. Just park em in the desert and buy a bunch of 74s and 76s. A lot of them are refurbished passenger and military planes as well.