I've been told by a good source that the UPS MD11 had a 2 hr delay for maintanance on the #1.
This means that the #1 engine (the one that appears to have departed the aircraft) was being worked on by maintenance right before this occurred.
Unless this plane was overloaded or calculations were done incorrectly, the MD-11 is capable of taking off with only two engines. A massive fire on the wing changes the equation.
One potential factor here is that since the MD-11 is a trijet, the #2 engine (the one in the tail) may have injested debris or hot air from the fire on the wing. It's also possible that the fire itself disrupted lift to an extent that the aircraft was unable to climb.
At least on the surface it seems similar to the AA flight 191 crash. Also a trijet (DC10), engine separated during takeoff due to improper maintenance, took hydraulics with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191
This means that the #1 engine (the one that appears to have departed the aircraft) was being worked on by maintenance right before this occurred.
Unless this plane was overloaded or calculations were done incorrectly, the MD-11 is capable of taking off with only two engines. A massive fire on the wing changes the equation.
One potential factor here is that since the MD-11 is a trijet, the #2 engine (the one in the tail) may have injested debris or hot air from the fire on the wing. It's also possible that the fire itself disrupted lift to an extent that the aircraft was unable to climb.
I'd love to hear this story...
Crap version compared to other types apparently.
At least on the surface it seems similar to the AA flight 191 crash. Also a trijet (DC10), engine separated during takeoff due to improper maintenance, took hydraulics with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191