The world’s largest cargo carriers, UPS and FedEx, grounded their MD-11 freighter fleets at the recommendation of Boeing, the aircraft’s manufacturer.
US logistics companies UPS and FedEx have grounded their combined fleet of more than 50 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes.
The decision, announced on Friday evening, followed a crash involving one of the planes at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky earlier that week, which killed at least 14 people.
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Boeing tells them to ground them. And then sends a sale team to each about upgrading.
But I paid for overnight shipping.
Too bad. You can get your bad dragons tomorrow.
Whaaaat? This isn’t the Xbox controller i ordered…
It’s an old meme but it checks out!
Pretty sad situation. I feel for the families that were affected by this. It is crazy that this is yet ANOTHER situation where a plane built by Boeing is at fault for a fatal crash. At what point will we see consequences for a company that does not take safety precautions seriously?
Also the plane was built in 1991, 34 years ago. I don’t know anything about plane lifespan but I’m not sure who is more at fault here, UPS for using a 34 year old plane or Boeing for poor maintenance.
I dislike Boeing as much as the next guy, but they only took over manufacturing in 1997 so this plane would have been built by McDonnell Douglas. I’m also pretty sure it’s not Boeing’s responsibility to maintain aircraft that are no longer in production.
McDonnell Douglas is actually the reason why Boeing sucks now. After Boeing took over McDonnell Douglas, the MD execs (who were skilled at office politics, but not building airplanes) wound up rising through the ranks and now Boeing is essentially run by the MD execs now.
Since Boeing became more like McDonnell Douglas after the takeover, I think it’s fair to call it a Boeing plane. It’s the McDonnell Douglas execs running Boeing now, so it’s fair to hold them responsible.
It’s not Boeing’s responsibility to maintain them at all once they sell them. They provide maintenance plans and sell services, but it’s not really any different from a car.
B-52s are originally from 1952 and still flying. That’s 73 years. But that doesn’t mean it’s the same assembly of parts that rolled off line in 1952. They’re constantly inspecting, repairing, replacing, and upgrading each and every part.
Im reading online that planes last 30 to 45 years, but cargo planes can last longer than that due to less use than passenger Planes?
A lot of retired commercial passenger planes end up being repurposed for cargo. Skewed more towards narrow body planes than wide body. Fuel efficiency becomes a problem with older wide body craft so freight companies tend to buy new for that size factor.
Source: buddy who works for a company as an aircraft maintenance tech.
