(WAVE/WKYT) – Federal investigators will hold two days of public hearings this week in Washington about a UPS cargo jet crash near Louisville’s Worldport facility that killed 15 people six months ago.
The hearings start Tuesday, May 19, and will mark the first time Boeing, the FAA and UPS will all be in the same room since the crash.
Investigators already know a lot about the UPS Flight 2976 crash in November. The NTSB released its preliminary report that same month, finding that a small bearing inside the pylon, the structural arm connecting the left engine to the wing, had failed on takeoff. Fatigue cracks had weakened the bearing to the breaking point.
The NTSB says Boeing knew that the same part had failed on other MD-11 jets four times before and warned airlines about it in 2011. Boeing recommended an updated design, but the FAA never made it mandatory. The plane that crashed in Louisville never got the upgrade.
Tuesday, investigators will question UPS, Boeing, and the FAA on how safety problems get reported and how the parties communicate those problems to each other. Wednesday shifts to the engineering side, with a look specifically at the pylon itself, from design to certification.
Thirteen witnesses are scheduled across both days, including engineers and executives from the companies. Representatives from UPS will be among the first witnesses on Tuesday morning.
Attorneys in several pending wrongful death lawsuits following the crash are expected in the hearing room, along with families of the 15 people killed.
This week’s hearings are being held for facts, not conclusions. The final report could still be two years away.
The hearing will be held at the NTSB boardroom in Washington and will be livestreamed Tuesday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., and Wednesday, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.