Investigators say UPS plane that crashed in Kentucky, killing 14, had cracks in engine mount

[VMA131Marine]

5. Yes, the engine flew off on AA 191 but

there was no fire and the plane would have been flyable had the crew known that the left side slats had retracted due to the loss of hydraulic pressure on that side. Unfortunately, the crew followed the SOP for a single engine out which was to reduce the airspeed to the engine-out best climb speed. This was below the stall speed for the left wing. A further issue was that only the captain’s yoke had a stick shaker and this became inoperative after the engine detached because it was powered by the left engine generator; there was no redundancy for this warning system. Thus, when the aircraft was slowed down the left wing stalled and the aircraft rolled to the right initiating the crash sequence. Flight simulations after the accident showed the DC-10 could have been flown and landed safely had the crew known about the disagreement in slat position.

In this MD-11 accident, the outbreak of fire on the left wing probably precluded the aircraft making a safe landing even if it had been able to climb because key wing structures would likely have burned through and failed before a landing attempt could have been made. My guess is that flames from the huge fire on the left wing got sucked into the centre engine intake which would dramatically reduce the available thrust on that engine. It’s possible the right engine got FODed by debris as well since images seem to show a series of compressor stalls on that engine. The UPS crew’s situation was basically hopeless once they reached V1.