Same situation for us. Multiple MD people might say won’t fly that plane again, refuse the fly it. I hope our Union protects us and is able to negotiate some sort of solution for this.

 

Really?
One event that looks like fatigue. Likely an isolated incident. Multiple inspections post event and FedEx over compliance in the past and you wouldn’t fly an a/c that’s been operating without incident for over 30’years?

 

Without incident? Maybe do a little googling? Seems this type has had a bit more than it’s fair share of incidents.

 

without incident?!?!?

 

I was talking unrecoverable pylon failure event like UPS. Most of the other events weren’t caused by the aircraft. It’s a big boy airplane, no doubt. Fly it right and it’s a great airplane. But you have to fly it. IMO, it’s a great freighter. Awesome systems, lots of power and fun to fly. I’d jump back in it as soon as it’s cleared to fly again.
You nay sayers weren’t on here before the UPS accident saying you’d never fly the MD-11, so the only conclusion that can be drawn is that your aversion is due to the UPS event. Therefore, the checkered past of the MD really isn’t relevant to your current comments.

 

This^^^^^^

I flew right seat on the MD for over six years. That jet inspired confidence that it could shoulder through whatever nastiness Mother Nature threw at us. Yes, it was very intolerant of poor pilotage in the landing phase and this killed some people. The systems integration and pilot friendliness is still better than anything else on UPS property. Unfortunately, we stumbled across a fatigue issue in an area of the aircraft that was previously unknown. Assuming this concern can be mitigated, I would have no more concerns flying the MD than any other jet with that number of hours/cycles.

 

You’re right. Not on here I didn’t say anything. However, a week before the crash I was flying with a FO who also has -10 experience. We both remarked about how we wouldn’t go fly the MD with its issues. Additionally, a FedEx classmate from World who has 5000+ hours in the MD, used to talk with me discussing how much better the 777 was than DC/MD.

After being trained on Boeing, I realized how much better designed of an airplane Boeing had over MD. Yes, we can argue over VNAV. But Boeing’s can electrically extend and retract flaps and slats and they don’t need a HYD 3 ELEV OFF valve.

The MD-11 is the hottest chick at the bar but she comes with a checkered past, like all hot chicks.

When I flew -10s we used to practice a dual engine failure on takeoff in the sim at much lighter gross weights for fun. It’s not fun now. For real, I’ve had many sleepless nights since UPS’s tragic crash. My mind races through what ifs and how I could achieve a different outcome. After driving myself crazy I realize you can’t.

 

It really doesn’t make sense to arbitrarily talk about one’s level of discomfort with a specific airline type without warrant. Every time I rode on an MD the thought of a crash landing crossed my mind. There is no other airplane I’ve ever flown on that made me recall prior deadly crashes while riding on it. The UPS crash was the final straw.

 

The relevant metric is number of hull losses per departure. Easy google search turns up the following (Boeing publishes every year...this chart breaks it down as hull losses per million departures):

https://www.voronoiapp.com/transport...raft-Type-5491

Then we can do some rough math to figure out total MD-11 departures. ChatGPT estimated approximately 3.2 million total departures, with a range of 3.0-3.4 million. Its math seemed reasonable to me. With a total of 10 MD-11 hull losses, we can compute the MD-11 hull loss rate per million departures as:

10/3.2 = 3.125 hull losses per million departures

(with a range of 3.333 to 2.94 for the low and high end of number of departures respectively). If you compare it to Boeing's data in the link you see that the MD-11 has a safety record that is basically on par with older aircraft which are no longer in service. For the sake of comparison, the other aircraft in service at FDX and UPS have the following rates:

777: 0.12
767: 0.13
757: 0.22
747-8: 0
737-400: 0.54
A300-600: 0.53 (I think all of the freighters are -600s)

So statistically speaking, the MD-11 is about 23-26 times more dangerous then similarly sized Boeing freighters (767, 777) and about 5 times more dangerous than the A300.

 

It may very well come down to a lack of lube of the pylon aft spherical bearing causing a vibration frequency that caused the lug to wear/fatigue crack. That fitting is hard to access and given the fact the md11 has been mostly vendor serviced it is possible due to its access, not properly lubed. IMO a failure of that aft bearing lug leading to a catastrophic failure is a poor design even if it were properly lubed. FedEx inspects that area every other C check. Every Four years.

I’m sure Boeing has no real interest in keeping the formally MDC product in service any more and a pylon redesign is to costly.

Best case scenario, drop all the pylons and engines, NDT lugs for cracks. Rebore lug replace bearings and increase inspection frequency. Make the Lube RII.

Worse case, put the thoroughbred to pasture.