Boeing knew that one of the parts on the UPS cargo plane that crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, last year was faulty, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The company insisted the plane was safe, despite the flaw, according to The New York Times:
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a report on Wednesday that a UPS cargo plane that crashed in Louisville, Ky., last year, killing 15, had a structural flaw that the manufacturer Boeing had previously concluded would not affect flight safety.
The N.T.S.B. has said that cracks in the assembly holding the left-side engine in place may have contributed to the November crash, though it has not officially cited a cause. The part had fractured in similar fashion on at least four other occasions, on three different airplanes, according to the report, which cited a service letter that Boeing issued in 2011 regarding the apparent flaw.
In the service letter, which manufacturers issue to flag safety concerns or other problems to aircraft owners, Boeing said that fractures “would not result in a safety of flight condition,” N.T.S.B. investigators wrote.
The plane that crashed was an MD-11F jet, made by McDonnell Douglas, a company that Boeing acquired in the 1990s. It was taking off from Louisville and bound for Hawaii on Nov. 4 when a fire ignited on its left engine shortly after takeoff.
The plane crashed into several buildings, including a petroleum recycling facility, on the outskirts of the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. The three crew members on board and 11 people on the ground were killed in the crash; a 12th person on the ground died of injuries sustained during the episode.
MAJOR UPDATE: The NTSB now says a 3-inch housing of an engine mount bearing failed in November’s crash of a UPS MD-11F crash in Louisville. The part was flagged in a Boeing alert to airlines in 2011. pic.twitter.com/NVW0qWA53G
— Pete Muntean (@petemuntean) January 14, 2026
The incident was one of the deadliest accidents in UPS Airlines' history. The plane was carrying 38,000 gallons of fuel for the journey to Hawaii, according to NPR.
Boeing has been under scrutiny over serious safety and quality control problems in recent years. The company’s reputation has taken a series of devastating hits after several incidents highlighted problems with its safety policies.
Attorney Brad Cosgrove said the Jan 14 NTSB report shows Boeing’s previously documented failures demonstrate warning signs that "predated the crash that any reasonable organization should have used to ensure the Louisville crash didn’t happen.” Via @AP. https://t.co/oRRhNReddC
— Clifford Law Offices (@CliffordLaw) January 15, 2026
The problems started with two deadly crashes involving Boeing’s planes. One occurred in Indonesia in 2018 and the other in Ethiopia the following year. These two crashes killed 346 people and led to the 737 MAX being grounded for almost two years.
Since then, the accidents began piling up. In January 2024, a door plug flew off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 plane just after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. This forced an emergency landing, and nobody was harmed. It later emerged that four bolts intended to hold the door plug in place were missing when the plane left the factory.
In June 2025, an Air India 787 crashed, killing 241 people. Boeing has faced criminal charges, massive fines, civil lawsuits worth billions of dollars, and regulatory penalties.
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