Plane Crashes and Incidents

[Ben]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1988232322580398118

A Turkish C-130 'Hercules' military transport plane crashed on its way back from Azerbaijan near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border; no details on casualties are available yet. The aircraft had taken off from Azerbaijan and was reportedly carrying Turkish servicemen who participated in the recent military parade in Baku.

Weird thing is that the video shows a plane which is already badly damaged before the crash. See the closer video on the right.

 

[dmnlksm]

Twenty soldiers, including high-ranking officers, were killed. This was likely a showdown or intimidation whose full implications we won't know. It's likely a Mossad or CIA attack. Like what they did to Iran via Azerbaijan.

 

[rs]

It’s obvious that the plane is in at least two pieces. You can see the fuselage on the right and the wings are clearly missing the whole back portion of the plane.

 

[Beau]

Crazy images from a UPS plane that crashed shortly after takeoff in Louisville Kentucky.

More images released today. Plane was on fire before it even took off!

New photos of UPS MD-11 jet crash show engine fly off, as NTSB finds aging plane had ‘fatigue cracks’

Shocking new photos from the deadly Kentucky plane crash reveal the moment the engine of the UPS Boeing erupted into flames during take off.

nypost.com

 

[Ruth]

There was no way this aircraft was ever going to be able to stay airborne (according to Captain Steeeve), as the 2nd engine (tail engine) had a compressor stall in addition to the left engine completely detatching from the plane. Picture 6 from Beau's post above, shows the compressor stall happening. The only power they had was from the right engine. It wasn't enough to stay airborne and explains why the aircraft went into the ground sideways.

 

[Voyageur]

More images released today. Plane was on fire before it even took off!

That tells part of the story, between photo #1 and #2 (tires still on the ground) the engine was already lifting up and away from the wing housing.

Horrible.

 

[Beau]

That tells part of the story, between photo #1 and #2 (tires still on the ground) the engine was already lifting up and away from the wing housing.

Juan Browne breaks down what happened there quite well

 

[Voyageur]

Juan Browne breaks down what happened there quite well

Really well done by Juan. Thanks.

When looking at the aft pylon mount bearing and bracket (looks like aluminum (may have been mixed alloys) casting and machine boring) and listening to him discuss the maintenance schedule records (2021 greasing repeated October 2025 - assuming that specific bearing was not missed), had though, what about NTD testing? Aluminum is horrible for long term stress fractures, and often why some critical superstructure components are metal (not generally aviation).

Here is what the NTSB's preliminary report says:

The spherical bearing outer race had fractured circumferentially, exposing the ball element (see figure 8).

See figure 7 for the aft lugs:

This is what the NTSB said of the maintenance (which the guy in the video speaks of):

Maintenance and Inspections At the time of the accident, N259UP had accumulated a total time of about 92,992 hours and 21,043 cycles. The accident airplane was maintained under a continuous airworthiness maintenance program (CAMP). A review of the inspection tasks for the left pylon aft mount found both a general visual inspection (GVI) and a detailed visual inspection of the left pylon aft mount, required by UPS’s maintenance program at a 72-month interval, was last accomplished on October 28, 2021. A 24-month/4,800 hour lubrication task of the pylon thrust links and pylon spherical bearings was last accomplished on October 18, 2025. A special detailed inspection (SDI) of the left pylon aft mount lugs would have been due at 29,200 cycles and of the left wing clevis support would have been due at 28,000 cycles. The accident airplane records showed these two SDI tasks had not been accomplished (the airplane had 21,043 cycles).

On the long piece (bearing locking pin) on top, it sees a grease nipple at the right end. It really surprised me that their lubrication schedule is only once in 24 months (there is a lot of equipment with friction/stress components like this where greasing must be done daily). Is there a maintenance access port to do this, don't know, yet what can be seen is that key bearing points like this do not have grease extension lines (which means multiple grease nipples are tethered together from a single point making relatively quick and easy). I guess they have reasoned this out in the aviation industry, at least to older plane retrofits.

As for stress fractures, that is not a surprise. So, my thoughts turn to what constitutes a "special detailed inspection (SDI)" that may or may not include Non destructive Testing (NDT). I hope it would. One can read here for what types of NDT testing is done, or should be done, in aviation. There are multiple types of tests depending on things like material thickness.

This is from the perspective of NTD testing (engineer stamped - or should be):

In an industry that designs components as lightweight as possible yet still able to perform critical functions, the sector needs the best of what non-destructive testing (NDT) has to offer. Comprised of jet engines/turbines, wings, propulsion tanks, fuselage, fasteners, , orbital welds, , and typically a lot of aluminum, both aircraft and spacecraft feature many crucial parts carrying high payloads relative to their material strength. Add the harsh operating conditions of extreme varied temperatures and low gravity, and this highlights the importance of detecting the smallest flaws early to prevent calamitous failure.

From the verification of new materials and the development of new vehicles to Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) work, NDT is used for the entire lifecycle of aircraft and spacecraft. Many are prone to after being subjected to intense and near-continuous use, making preventative maintenance essential. Supervisory bodies oversee safety so that it reaches the highest possible levels, and several standards apply to the functional safety of aerospace vehicles. Maintenance protocols are exhaustive and time-consuming, especially when fuselage and engines are involved.

 

[Gaby]

This happened to an Airbus/Air France flight from Paris to Corsica yesterday:

« Tout s’allumait, tout clignotait » : un vol Air France Paris-Ajaccio dérouté en urgence à la suite d’une panne de moteur en plein vol

Samedi soir, un vol Air France reliant Paris à Ajaccio a dû atterrir en urgence à Lyon après un incident technique survenu en plein vol. Il

www.leparisien.fr

Everything changed at around 6 p.m., as the Airbus A320 flew over the Clermont-Ferrand region. After about 30 minutes of flight, a loud noise rang out in the cabin. Steven, one of the passengers, remembers “a big boom” accompanied by “a lot of vibrations,” he told our colleagues at RTL. “At first, I thought it was a joke, but then we realized it was serious,” he continued.

Left engine failure
Through the windows, some passengers saw fire on one of the aircraft's wings. “It was on fire,” Christelle, who watched helplessly alongside her daughter, also told the radio station. According to passenger accounts, the captain explained that the “left engine stopped working in mid-flight.”

The airline has stated that it was a “engine failure.” According to an industry expert, this is a case of “engine surging,” which occurs when air pockets form inside the engine and create vibrations, forcing the crew to “shut down the engine.”

The plane suddenly lost altitude, causing panic on board. “All of a sudden, the plane dropped,” Christelle told RTL. According to our observations on FlightRadar, the aircraft dropped from an altitude of 34,000 feet to 5,000 feet in just ten minutes.

“The buttons, everything was lighting up, everything was flashing. There was a man who took his children in his arms because they thought we were going to crash,” Christelle described.

“The landing went smoothly on a single engine,” he continued. “Flying on one engine is not a normal situation,” but “these things happen in the world of air transport.”

“The wing wasn't on fire, the engine wasn't on fire, there was no fire alarm. But I can't rule out the possibility that there were a few flames at the nozzle that were contained within the engine and lasted only a second or two,” he said.

The Airbus A320 aircraft operating the flight is equipped with two CFM56 engines, mounted under the wings, manufactured by the Franco-American joint venture CFM between Safran and GE, which “are among the most reliable engines in the world,” according to this industry expert. Such an incident “happens very rarely when you consider the number of flights,” the expert said.