Comment / The MD-11 broke early – and so did air cargo’s faith in old Iron

ID 248372797 © Timon Schneider | Dreamstime.com

When I first wrote that two seemingly unconnected crashes – a UPS MD-11F in Louisville and an Emirates 747 freighter in Hong Kong – had exposed deeper structural weaknesses in global air cargo, it was still unclear how far the fallout might extend.

Now, with preliminary data emerging from the US National Transportation Safety Board* (NTSB) and regulators keeping the MD-11 grounded worldwide, that “systemic stress test” described in earlier coverage this month looks less like a metaphor and more like ...