A cracked engine mount that had triggered warnings years before the disaster was part of the structural failure that brought down a UPS cargo plane in Louisville last November, federal investigators revealed at a hearing this week.
The National Transportation Safety Board disclosed that fatigue cracks had formed in the left pylon bearing race, a critical component connecting the engine to the wing. That same part had been flagged in a 2011 Boeing report documenting four previous failures across three different aircraft.
The MD-11 freighter shed its left engine during takeoff on November 11, crashed into an auto recycling plant, and killed all three crew members and 12 people on the ground. An additional 23 people suffered injuries.
The two-day hearing in Washington brought together the families of victims, attorneys, and federal regulators to examine how the defect escaped detection and what oversight lapses allowed the aircraft to remain in service. The NTSB has since released more than 2,000 pages of investigative documents, including surveillance video showing the moment the engine separated and the jet plummeted to the ground in flames.
Records show that similar cracks in race components on MD-11 planes had been reported repeatedly over the prior decade, yet the planes continued flying. The NTSB's investigation will examine not only the design flaws in those components but also the Federal Aviation Administration's monitoring of the problem over the past 20 years.
The inquiry takes on added weight given that the doomed aircraft was being used as a substitute for another plane undergoing maintenance for a fuel leak, investigators found. Flight crew members had even joked with maintenance workers during a second pre-flight check about the tight turnaround.
UPS retired its remaining fleet of two dozen MD-11s shortly after the crash. However, FedEx resumed operations with its own MD-11 fleet after the FAA lifted its grounding order, signaling that regulators determined the broader risk was manageable once additional oversight measures were in place.
At the hearing's opening, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homey addressed families of the deceased directly. "Please know: your loved ones are the reason we're here. We want to find out what happened," she said.
Attorney Bradley Cosgrove, whose firm filed the first wrongful death claim related to the crash, attended the hearing alongside his team of lawyers, pilots, and technical experts. "These families are devastated and certainly deserve answers," Cosgrove said.
Boeing representatives were among the witnesses called during the hearing. The NTSB's final report is not expected for more than a year.
Author James Rodriguez: "The question now is whether regulators knew about this defect history and did nothing, or whether the warning signs simply fell through the cracks of an oversight system that failed 15 people."
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