Cracked part had been flagged ahead of Kentucky plane crash that killed 15 people

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed on Tuesday that it is reviewing reports of cracks in a wing mount before the left engine sheared off from a UPS freight airplane on takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky, in November, resulting in a crash that killed 15 people . That information surfaced at the beginning of a two-day hearing into the crash of the delivery service’s MD-11, which left all three crew members and 12 people on the ground dead. An additional 23 people on the ground were injured as an auto parts recycling plant ignited after the freighter crashed into it. Between the crash and the NTSB hearing, the board said that a cracked part on the doomed jet was flagged in a Boeing 2011 report which said there had previously been four such failures on three different airplanes. The NTSB said its investigation had found fatigue cracks in a support structure on the left pylon that connects to the wing and the plane’s engine known as the bearing race. The agency also said there were a series of reports of cracks in race parts on MD-11 planes in the prior decade. The NTSB’s hearing is also meant to review the design requirements for those components, along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s oversight of the problem over the last two decades. The FedEx delivery service said it had again started using its fleet of MD-11s after the FAA lifted an order that had barred flying those airplanes after the UPS crash. …