Fleet of UPS planes grounded after deadly crash expected to miss peak delivery season

A fleet of planes that UPS grounded aft a deadly clang isn't expected to beryllium backmost successful work during the highest vacation play owed to inspections and imaginable repairs, the institution said Wednesday successful an interior memo.

The hose expects it volition beryllium respective months earlier its McDonnell Douglas MD-11 fleet returns to work arsenic it works to conscionable Federal Aviation Administration guidelines, said the memo from UPS Airlines president Bill Moore to employees. The process was primitively estimated to instrumentality weeks but is present expected to instrumentality respective months.

A fiery MD-11 level clang connected Nov. 4 successful Louisville, Kentucky, killed 14 radical and injured astatine slightest 23 erstwhile the near motor detached during takeoff. Cargo carriers grounded their McDonnell Douglas MD-11 fleets soon after, up of a directive from the FAA.

"Regarding the MD-11 fleet, Boeing's ongoing valuation shows that inspections and imaginable repairs volition beryllium much extended than initially expected," Moore wrote successful the memo.

This operation photograph provided by the NTSB via UPS shows a series wherever an motor is seen detaching from the plane's near helping upon takeoff successful Louisville, Nov. 4, 2025.

(UPS/NTSB via AP)

A UPS spokesperson said successful a connection that the institution volition trust connected contingency plans to present for customers passim the highest season, and it "will instrumentality the clip needed to guarantee that each craft is safe."

The 109 remaining MD-11 airliners, averaging much than 30 years old, are exclusively utilized to haul cargo for bundle transportation companies. MD-11s marque up astir 9% of the UPS hose fleet and 4% of the FedEx fleet.

Boeing, which took implicit arsenic the shaper of MD-11s since merging with McDonnell Douglas successful 1997, said successful a connection that it is "working diligently to supply instructions and method enactment to operators" truthful that they tin conscionable the FAA's requirements.

The FAA said Boeing volition make the procedures for inspections and immoderate corrective actions, pending support from the FAA.