Rep. McGarvey urges MD‑11 grounding

U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey is asking the Federal Aviation Administration to permanently ground the MD-11 after the UPS Flight 2976 crash in Louisville. (mcgarvey.house.gov) McGarvey, a Louisville Democrat, sent the letter on April 24, 2026, nearly six months after the Nov. 4, 2025 crash near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. He said the aircraft’s record and the Louisville disaster warrant removing the model from service. (mcgarvey.house.gov) (courier-journal.com) The National Transportation Safety Board said UPS Flight 2976, an MD-11F, was destroyed shortly after takeoff from runway 17R at Louisville at about 5:14 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 4. The board said three crew members and 11 people on the ground were killed, and 23 people on the ground were injured. (ntsb.gov) Investigators said the jet’s left engine and pylon separated from the wing during takeoff. McGarvey’s office pointed to that preliminary finding as evidence of what he called a broader pattern of structural problems with the type. (ntsb.gov) (mcgarvey.house.gov) The MD-11 is a three-engine widebody built by McDonnell Douglas before Boeing took over the program. It no longer flies passengers in regular U.S. service and has survived mainly as a cargo aircraft. (pbs.org) (boeing.mediaroom.com) After the Louisville crash, Boeing recommended on Nov. 7, 2025 that the three MD-11 freighter operators suspend flights while engineers studied the issue. The Federal Aviation Administration followed with an emergency airworthiness directive on Nov. 8 barring further flight until inspections and corrective actions were completed. (boeing.mediaroom.com) (federalregister.gov) McGarvey’s new demand goes further than that temporary order. He is asking for a permanent grounding even though the crash investigation remains preliminary and the National Transportation Safety Board has not issued a final cause. (mcgarvey.house.gov) (ntsb.gov) UPS has already moved on from the aircraft. In its Jan. 27, 2026 earnings release, the company said it accelerated fleet modernization and completed the retirement of its MD-11 fleet during the fourth quarter of 2025. (investors.ups.com) McGarvey’s letter says the MD-11 has had at least 10 hull-loss accidents since entering service in 1990 and calls that the highest rate per million departures among widebody commercial jets still flying in the United States. That claim, as presented, comes from his office’s summary of Boeing data. (mcgarvey.house.gov) The immediate question is whether the Federal Aviation Administration treats the Louisville crash as a one-aircraft failure that can be fixed by inspection, or as a design problem that ends the MD-11’s remaining cargo life. (federalregister.gov) (ntsb.gov)