Jet engine with fiery history in Chicago is focus of UPS crash investigation

The MD-11 cargo jet flown by UPS that crashed Tuesday had been sidelined for six weeks before the deadly incident, according to federal investigators.

The jetliner was undergoing major maintenance at an aviation service center in San Antonio, Texas.

But as authorities try to figure out what happened before the Louisville crash, Chicago ties to the investigation have come to light.

One of the plane’s final flights before being put up for maintenance was a Chicago O’Hare to Louisville flight. And that isn’t the only Chicago tie to the investigation.

The Hawaii-bound UPS jet only reached 475 feet and 210 miles per hour before crashing after the 34-year-old plane’s left engine broke off, later to be found on the airfield.

Now, federal investigators are keying on that engine: a General Electric CF-6 model turbine, and why it seemingly exploded on liftoff and broke away from the wing.

A plane with the same type of GE engine was also in flames on takeoff less than ten years ago here at O’Hare airport.

In a 2016 Chicago incident involving an American Airlines Boeing 767, there was an uncontained right engine failure, fire, and an emergency runway evacuation with numerous injuries — but no deaths.

NBC5 Investigates reported at the time that the O’Hare incident was the fourth engine failure and fire incident where the same GE equipment was in use. They were incidents that resulted in immediate federal inspections “because another failure may be imminent” and considering should be given to having the engines “immediately removed from service.”

At the time of this week’s crash in Louisville, safety and maintenance changes on that type of engine had been underway for years aimed at preventing uncontained engine failures.

On Tuesday evening, however, something went wrong with the GE CF-6 engine in Louisville. Now, federal investigators say they are already reviewing six weeks of major maintenance records for the work that preceded the crash.

“We have actually started to pull those records down,” said NTSB board member Todd Inman. “We have a specific group that has  experts in not only maintenance but preparing job cards and all the requirements of that.”

Inman, appearing at a Louisville update on Thursday afternoon, said the agency was ”currently downloading information and going back and actually as part of the investigative process we will go back even further than that to get pertinent additional details on certain inspections and checks based on the age of the aircraft”.

Records show the plane that crashed was in Texas for repairs and upkeep from September 3 to October 18, and that fuel tank and fuselage issues were addressed. During such a major maintenance stop there would have been a multi-point checklist, especially for an aircraft that old.

NTSB officials also say they are examining CCTV footage of the area around the plane while it was in Texas to see who had access, when and what they worked on.