Maintenance is a key focus of the UPS Flight 2976 crash after the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report revealed the piece of the plane’s pylon that connects the engine to the wing had fatigue and overstress cracks.
While the preliminary report doesn’t determine the ultimate root cause of the crash, which will take much longer, it does give us a much better idea of the focus.
The plane last had both general and detailed visual inspections of the pylon in October 2021.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the part is on a six-year schedule.
It was due for another special detail inspection when it clocked 29,200 cycles, but it was still 8,000 cycles short of that maintenance deadline.
The plane did have lubrication work on some of the structural components of the pylon on October 18.
Flight records show that was the last day the plane was at the UPS contract maintenance facility in San Antonio before coming back into service.
A retired UPS pilot said the cracks in the metal are the key findings in this report.
The preliminary report also connects the crash to American Flight 191 in Chicago in 1979.
Its left engine and pylon also separated, causing the plane to crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board found improper maintenance damaged the same parts that were found to have cracks on the doomed UPS plane.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s final report will take many more months to complete.
But the FAA grounded the entire fleet of MD-11 and DC-10 aircraft pending special inspections.
After the Chicago crash in 1979, nine planes were found to have similar damage.
Source: WAVE
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