Here’s the latest on the UPS MD-11 jet crash at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali Airport, from the CJ:

Just two weeks after the fatal Nov. 4 UPS crash left 14 dead in Louisville, a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report found the left engine detached from the plane and caught fire. Additionally, the investigation found evidence of “fatigue cracks,” among other issues.

The crash involved a UPS Airlines MD-11 bound from Louisville to Hawaii that crashed right after takeoff just south of the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Grade Lane. The three crew members onboard and 11 people on the ground were killed, and according to the NTSB, an additional 23 people were injured from the crash.

As you see from the photos provided by UPS above, the left engine burst into flame as it fell off the jet. In a YouTube video, an experienced jet pilot explained why the plane couldn’t fly even though jets are supposed to be able to operate on just one engine. The MD-11 had three engines.

There seems to be no issue of pilot error. According to the CJ:

Capt. Richard Wartenberg, the pilot who was monitoring the flight, was certified to fly an MD-11 and had “accumulated about 8,613 total hours of flight experience as reported to the FAA.” Of those hours, 4,918 hours were in an MD-11.

First Officer Lee Truitt, the pilot determined to be flying the plane, was certified to fly an MD-11. He had about 9,200 total hours of FAA reported flight experience, and 994 of those hours were on an MD-11.

The relief officer, Capt. Dana Diamond, was certified to fly an MD-11. Diamond was the most experienced pilot in the crew with about 15,250 total hours of flight experience reported to the FAA, with 8,775 hours in the MD-11.

That’s plenty of flight experience. This is now looking like inadequate maintenance on an old, badly designed jet. The MD-11 is a variant of the old DC-10, which had its own fatal disaster years ago:

In the aftermath of the UPS crash, comparison was made to the 1979 DC-10 crash in Chicago that killed nearly 300 people after the left pylon, which supported the engine, came loose and took out a hydraulic line.

The DC-10 is considered an earlier generation of MD-11, and the NTSB investigation into the UPS crash made a direct comparison to the 1979 DC-10 crash, noting it as a “similar event.” The 1979 crash saw the left engine and pylon and part of the “leading edge” of the left wing separate from the airplane and fall to the runway, eventually leading the plane to crash into an open field.

Given that this was a cargo plane carrying packages for delivery, it raises the question of how will people find out if a package they mailed was destroyed in the flight, and what compensation people will get. According to the U.S. edition of the British-based Independent:

UPS has not released any details about how many and what type of packages were on the plane.

Ed Anderson, a professor of supply chain and operations management for the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, estimates the average number of packages per plane leaving the Louisville shipping hub is 10,000 to 13,000.

Consumers who want to check on their UPS packages can wait to hear from the company or look up tracking details online. UPS has a claims process for lost or damaged packages, but it is unclear if people and businesses with packages on the downed plane will have to go through that process.

It will be at least a year before a final report is released by the NTSB. For now, the MD-11 is grounded.