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FAA Ends MD-11 Grounding After Boeing Review
Regulator Approved Procedures for Operators to Complete Inspections and Corrective Actions
Key Takeaways:
- The FAA approved Boeing’s protocols, allowing MD-11 and MD-11F cargo jets to return to service after months of grounding following a fatal UPS crash last year.
- The grounding followed a Kentucky crash that killed more than a dozen people, with investigators examining a cracked structural component Boeing warned operators about in 2011.
- FedEx resumed MD-11F flights after inspections, while the NTSB continues its probe and plans an investigative hearing May 19-20.
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved Boeing Co.’s protocols to address safety issues on the cargo jet model involved in last year’s fatal United Parcel Service Inc. plane crash, allowing the aircraft to return to service after being grounded for months.
The FAA grounded all McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and MD-11F jets in November following the accident in Kentucky, which killed more than a dozen people on the plane and on the ground.
The regulator prohibited all flights until operators completed inspections and corrective actions, using procedures provided by Boeing and approved by the FAA.
“After extensive review, the FAA approved Boeing’s protocol for safely returning MD-11 airplanes to service,” the agency said May 11 in a statement to Bloomberg News. The FAA referred additional questions to the aircraft operators and Boeing, which took over McDonnell Douglas in 1997.
A Boeing representative said in a statement that the company issued a message to operators with inspection instructions after the FAA gave its approval.
A UPS spokesperson declined to comment, noting that the company retired its MD-11s after the crash.
Data from flight tracking site Flightradar24 shows FedEx Corp. flew at least two of its MD-11F aircraft over the weekend.
“Over the past several months, our airline safety, engineering, and maintenance teams have conducted rigorous safety inspections, maintenance, and planning to prepare our MD-11 fleet to return to service,” FedEx said in a statement May 11.
RELATED: UPS, FedEx, Others Face Long-Term Effects of MD-11 Grounding
The company said it began operating the planes again over the weekend “following the FAA’s approval of Boeing’s means of compliance and validation of our completion of the required repairs and inspections.”
UPS ranks No. 1 and FedEx No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America. UPS Supply Chain Solutions is No. 6 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies. The company also ranks No. 3 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest global freight carriers.
FedEx ranks No. 3 on the global freight TT50 and No. 40 on the logistics TT100.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board have been working to determine what caused the UPS MD-11F cargo jet to lose its left engine during takeoff on Nov. 4. The aircraft cleared a fence at the end of the runway at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport but then plunged into terrain and buildings outside of the facility’s perimeter.
The NTSB will hold an investigative hearing on May 19 and 20.
Investigators have already released some of their findings, including Boeing’s warning to MD-11 operators in 2011 that a structural component — later found cracked in the aircraft involved in the 2025 accident — had failed before in three different planes.
The NTSB said in a January update that it’s reviewing how UPS applied the inspection instructions relayed by Boeing in 2011 and how those instructions were incorporated into the planemaker’s maintenance documents and manuals.
The board also said it was reviewing correspondence between Boeing and the FAA about the issue.
