The model of cargo plane that crashed in Kentucky last fall after an engine fell off a UPS jet as it was taking off resumed flying over the weekend.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it approved Boeing’s proposed fix for the workhorse MD-11s “after extensive review.” And then FedEx started flying them to deliver packages again Sunday.
The UPS plane crashed in November 2025 shortly after taking off once the left engine flew off the wing as the plane rolled down the runway. Three pilots on the plane that was headed for Hawaii loaded with packages and fuel were killed along with 12 more people on the ground near Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport.
Boeing developed a plan to replace a key spherical bearing and step up inspections of the parts that hold the engines to the wings. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that in 2011 Boeing had documented four previous failures of the part that helps secure the MD-11’s engines to the wings on three different planes, but at that point the plane manufacturer “determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition.” These planes were built by McDonnell Douglas, which was later bought by Boeing.
The FAA grounded all MD-11s after the crash because of concerns that the planes might not be safe. Earlier this year, UPS retired its entire fleet of the aircraft, which made up about 9% of its total fleet. But FedEx had remained committed to getting them back in the air even though they only account for about 4% of its fleet. The other package hauler that used MD-11s, Western Global Airlines, has not commented publicly since the crash and didn’t respond to an email about the FAA’s decision.
FedEx said in a statement that it worked closely with Boeing, the FAA and its own experts to inspect and repair its planes, and the government certified that it had complied with Boeing’s recommendations. It owns 46 of these planes though even before the crash it had been storing more than two dozen of them.
“Safety is our highest priority at FedEx,” the company said.
But FedEx does plan to eventually retire its MD-11s and replace them with more efficient models. They had announced that long-term plan even before the crash.
Aviation lawyers who are representing some of the families that have sued over the Louisville crash said they hope the FAA made sure these planes will be safe.
“We hope the FAA does a thorough job of investigating the fixes before the MD-11 fleet is allowed to return to flight,” lawyer Bradley Cosgrove said.
But aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said he’s surprised it took this long to get these planes flying again given how quickly the NTSB identified key concerns that likely contributed to the engine falling off. The NTSB is planning two days of investigative hearings on the UPS crash next week to delve deeper into what happened.
“I’m confident that the solution will work, and I would like to see the MD-11s back up in the air. It will be a safe airplane with regards to its engines after these corrective actions are made,” said Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and FAA.
Some experts speculated after the crash that the MD-11s might never fly again if the repair proved to be more expensive that it was worth in these older planes. But Boeing found a way to address the safety concerns with just replacing the bearing and stepping up inspections.
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Associated Press writer Jack Dura contributed to this report from Bismarck, North Dakota.
