{"id":34986,"date":"2025-11-09T23:06:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T17:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=34986"},"modified":"2025-11-09T23:06:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T17:21:20","slug":"us-grounds-md-11-cargo-planes-after-deadly-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/us-grounds-md-11-cargo-planes-after-deadly-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"US grounds MD-11 cargo planes after deadly crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The US civil aviation regulator ordered Saturday that all MD-11 cargo planes remain grounded for inspections, after one of them was involved in a deadly crash in Kentucky this week.<\/p>\n

A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft operated by UPS exploded into flames when it crashed shortly after departing Tuesday from the airport in Louisville, killing at least 14 people. A three-person crew was aboard.<\/p>\n

Freight carriers UPS and FedEx later grounded their MD-11 fleets, while Boeing, which owns McDonnell Douglas, said it had recommended that all operators suspend their use of the planes.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency directive that “prohibits further flight until the airplane is inspected and all applicable corrective actions are performed.”<\/p>\n

The directive applies to the MD-11 and MD-11F models and says it “was prompted by an accident where the left-hand engine and pylon detached from the airplane during takeoff.”<\/p>\n

“The agency has determined the unsafe condition is likely to exist or develop in other products of the same type design,” it said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, UPS said it had decided to “temporarily ground” its MD-11s “out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of safety.” It said the model accounts for around nine percent of its fleet.<\/p>\n

FedEx said Saturday it, too, had grounded its 28 MD-11s out of a total fleet of around 700 aircraft as it conducts a safety review.<\/p>\n

Both carriers said they were acting on a recommendation from the plane’s manufacturer. McDonnell Douglas originally made the MD-11 but was acquired by Boeing in 1997.<\/p>\n

Boeing said it had “recommended to the three operators of the MD-11 Freighter that they suspend flight operations while additional engineering analysis is performed.”<\/p>\n

The only other carrier using the MD-11 is Western Global Airlines.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said another crash victim had been located, bringing the total number to 14.<\/p>\n

“Please pray for these families, the Louisville community and everyone affected by this terrible event,” he said on X.<\/p>\n

– Trail of debris –<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plane, filled with around 38,000 gallons (144,000 liters) of fuel for the long-haul flight to Hawaii, narrowly missed a major Ford vehicle assembly plant that employs about 3,000 people.<\/p>\n

Aerial footage of the crash site showed a long trail of debris as firefighters doused the flames, with smoke billowing from the area.<\/p>\n

Todd Inman, a member of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said this week that investigators had identified the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — known as a plane’s black boxes — and would send them to Washington for analysis.<\/p>\n

The crash was reportedly the deadliest in UPS history. Its main hub, Worldport, is in Louisville, where it employs thousands of people.<\/p>\n

According to the NTSB, the plane was built in 1991 and was modified into a cargo aircraft.<\/p>\n

The crash comes amid the longest government shutdown in US history, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warning this week of “mass chaos” in the skies due to a lack of air traffic control staff.<\/p>\n

Inman said the NTSB was not aware of any staff shortages at Louisville’s airport at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US civil aviation regulator ordered Saturday that all MD-11 cargo planes remain grounded for inspections, after one of them was involved in a deadly crash in Kentucky this week. A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft operated by UPS exploded into flames when it crashed shortly after departing Tuesday from the airport in Louisville, killing at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34988,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34986\/revisions\/34988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}