LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The MD-11 aircraft make up about 9% of the UPS airline fleet and 4% of the FedEx fleet, according to both companies.
“We made this decision proactively at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer,” a UPS statement said. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our employees and the communities we serve.”
FedEx also confirmed in an email that it will be grounding the aircraft while it conducts “a thorough safety review based on the recommendation of the manufacturer.”
Boeing, which merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press asking for the reasoning behind the recommendation.
The crash Tuesday at UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky, killed 14 people, including the three pilots on the MD-11 that was headed for Honolulu. The cargo plane was nearly airborne when a bell sounded in the cockpit, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said earlier Friday.
For the next 25 seconds, the bell rang continuously as the pilots tried to control the aircraft. It barely lifted off the runway, its left wing ablaze and missing an engine, before plowing into the ground in a spectacular fireball.
The cockpit voice recorder captured the bell sound, which occurred about 37 seconds after the crew called for takeoff thrust, Inman explained. There are different types of alarms with varying meanings, and investigators have not yet determined why the bell rang. However, they do know the left wing was burning and the engine on that side had detached.
Inman noted that it will be months before a transcript of the cockpit recording is made public as part of the ongoing investigation process.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, suggested the bell likely signaled the engine fire. “It occurred at a point in the takeoff where they were likely past their decision speed to abort the takeoff,” Guzzetti told The Associated Press after Inman’s news conference.
“They were likely past their critical decision speed to remain on the runway and stop safely. They’ll need to thoroughly investigate the options the crew may or may not have had.”
Dramatic video captured the aircraft crashing into nearby businesses and erupting in a massive fireball. Footage from phones, cars, and security cameras has provided investigators with evidence from multiple angles.
Flight records indicate that the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, built in 1991, underwent maintenance while on the ground in San Antonio for over a month until mid-October, but it is not clear what specific work was performed.
The UPS package handling facility in Louisville is the company’s largest hub. The facility employs more than 20,000 people in the region, handles 300 flights daily, and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.
UPS Worldport operations resumed Wednesday night with its Next Day Air, or night sort, operation, according to spokesperson Jim Mayer.
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/08/g-s1-97052/ups-fedex-ground-md-11-planes
