UPS blames Boeing as new evidence points to fatal cargo crash causes

UPS is blaming Boeing for a maintenance warning that never made the danger plain enough to stop a fatal MD-11F crash in Louisville. Inspectors were not told to check a bearing that Boeing had already flagged as faulty, even though the airplane later broke apart just after takeoff on November 4, 2025, killing all three crewmembers and 11 people on the ground.

The issue runs through Boeing’s service letters, UPS maintenance planning, and federal oversight. Boeing’s 2008 guidance was advisory and informational, and a 2011 notice about the spherical bearing race did not present the issue as an immediate safety-of-flight threat. David Springer, speaking for UPS, called Boeing’s service letters “almost benign.” The more detailed inspection that could have found the defect was never added to the federally approved maintenance schedule.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation tied the crash to the left engine’s separation from the wing during takeoff from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, where Flight 2976 was bound for Honolulu. Investigators found that the left pylon aft mount bulkhead fractured and the spherical bearing race failed, a combination that severed the engine attachment structure. The NTSB said one seriously injured person later died, bringing the death toll to 15, with 23 others hurt on the ground.

At a two-day investigative hearing on May 19 and 20, investigators disclosed records of 10 previous flaws in the same key engine-attachment parts on other similar aircraft, most of them never reported to the Federal Aviation Administration. Boeing and FAA officials acknowledged at the hearing that they had misunderstood the risks posed by failures in the engine mount bearings.

UPS says it had followed Boeing and FAA-approved maintenance programs and was not required to perform the enhanced inspection because Boeing never placed it in the mandatory schedule. The NTSB is still reviewing how the spherical bearing assembly inspection was folded into Boeing maintenance planning documents and manuals.

MD-11s and DC-10s were grounded pending further inspection after similar flaws were found, and UPS later accelerated retirement of its MD-11 fleet.