FedEx said it is working with Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to return its grounded MD-11 cargo jets to service by May 31, according to Reuters.
On Wednesday the carrier confirmed inspections and maintenance actions are underway as part of the effort to safely resume MD-11 operations. FedEx temporarily grounded the aircraft type after a UPS–operated MD-11 crashed at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in November, killing all three crewmembers on board.
“We continue to work with Boeing and the FAA to address any required inspection and maintenance that may be needed to return our MD-11 aircraft safely to service,” FedEx said in a statement cited by Reuters.
The news comes a day after UPS announced it has officially retired its entire MD-11 fleet during the company’s Q4 2025 earnings report.
FedEx is now one of the last major U.S. operators of the MD-11. The company has not disclosed how many aircraft will return to service or whether the grounding could lead to longer-term changes in its fleet strategy.
Earlier this month, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said investigators found a cracked part on the UPS aircraft involved in the Louisville crash that had been flagged by Boeing more than a decade ago. Officials have not yet stated whether the issue played a role in the accident, and the investigation is still underway.
I flew the Mad Dog for over 10 years at FedEx it was a demanding airplane that required attention to detail. With the outstanding training we received, if flown by the numbers it was a joy to operate.
The UPS crew were doomed, no better crew. If the airplanes condition was salvageable they would be around telling us about it.
I’ll be interested to see what the NTSB analysis reveals. What caused the engine to break off? Was it just the “normal operation" of the engine and the cumulative effects of thousands of cycles or was it an engine malfunction causing an out of balance condition, FOD, or a turbine or fan blade separation, turbine wheel chunk failure that resulted in significant out of balance condition that resulted in the dramatic separation of the engine.
RIP brothers, Nickel on the grass.
Let’s see. Two FedEx pilots killed at Narita. A number of FedEx airplanes damaged due to the exceptional handling characteristics, as were 5 Delta airplanes and a similar number at KLM. Then we have two cases of complete engine separation, AA191 and UPS 2976. Despite all the maintenance cautions after AA191, despite all the training in adverse handling we still have this aircraft type crashing in the hands of professional well qualified pilots under normal flight conditions. Time to absolutely, positively…park them.
Interesting post GeeBee. That’s in addition to the original MD-11, the DC-10, whose faulty design of the cargo door, weak cabin floor, hydraulic lines that were too close to the center engine and others, that caused accidents and near accidents that took many lives.
I’ve read in a couple of places that when Boeing issued a service bulletin about the pylons in 2011, FedEx addressed the risk by implementing a redesigned pylon but UPS did not since it was not required. If that is true, it is possible that the redesigned pylons on the FedEx MD-11s prevent a similar failure.
While we know what failed in the pylon assembly, as Sparky said, we do not know exactly why. We have assumed so far it was just the stress of cycles but that may not be true. It was not true of AA191. That answer will be important to determine whether FedEx’s pylon redesign resolves the potential for their fleet.
Looking back at several 747’s that lost engines due to fractured ‘fuse pins’ in years past–
resulting in engine loss similar to the DC-10/ MD-11 pylon failures. Amsterdam
So this engine attachment component has been problematic in more than just one A/C type.