22 hours ago, toucanair said:

 

It does strangely, however seem reminiscent of this accident back in 1978 with the MD-11's forebear, the DC-10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191

100% agree not to speculate, just to discuss overall flight safety and maybe try and learn something, including from past events, no matter how miniscule it might be.

I also thought of American 191.

My Dad was a passenger on this flight:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_National_Airways_Flight_032

I remember him telling me pretty much everyone, including him, ignored the calls to remove your shoes and leave all your belongings behind during the evacuation.

Just superficially envisioning, probably 20 or 30 seconds after commencement of the takeoff roll there's no indication whatsoever anything's wrong to warrant aborting the takeoff, and then somewhere after that around the decision speed something changed very quickly, perhaps nothing else one could have done.

For example the Swissair MD-11 that went down near Halifax was also an event which was in and of itself terrifying, but you had like 21 minutes from the first indication something was wrong until the crash. In that case there are still ongoing discussions to this day as to what might have occurred had the crew taken different measures.

22 hours ago, toucanair said:

 

Delete

Edited November 6, 2025Nov 6 by Antipodeslonghaul
Double post

 

Edited November 6, 2025Nov 6 by TuFun

So the engine came clean off? How did that happen? 

There’s some speculating engine 2 was having compressor stalls during rotation due to possible FOD from engine 1’s departure. If that’s true, the crew’s fate was sealed. This tears me up as a professional pilot. For any pilot to go through an event where they cannot get out of it caused by something that they didn’t create is pure hell. 

 

So, is there supposed to be CCTV footage of the No.1 engine detaching from the left wing?

23 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

So the engine came clean off? How did that happen? 

The MD-11 was based on the older DC-10 and a DC-10 had an engine separate from its pylon back in 1979.  

Eerily similar failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191#Engine_separation

That was a maintenance issue. I wonder if this is the same? 

Right now, my youtube feed is flooded with speculation videos (which I hate). There are only a few contributers which I respect enough. One is Jeffostroff, and another is Mentour Pilot, also Pilot Debrief and fellow Irishman Green Dot Aviation. 

in this video it shows the number 3 or number 2 engine  having a compressor stall and he explains why it probably  happened

 

Edited November 8, 2025Nov 8 by pete_auau

USP and FedEx have grounded their MD-11 fleets.

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/08/g-s1-97052/ups-fedex-ground-md-11-planes

More info:

 

The DC10 was found to be maintenance in 1979 taking short cuts fitting the engines using a forklift to speed fitting, this damaged the engine mountings. Freddie Laker had his aircraft grounded but was found to be doing the maintenance correctly with jig that takes longer.