attorney/pilot Jim Brauchle on MD 11 flight capabilities, maintenance, methodical NTSB info timetable

Aviation investigator/litigator Jim Brauchle joined Terry Meiners to talk about the capabilities of the UPS MD-11F, like the one that crashed in Louisville.

Enough information has been released by the NTSB to confirm that the left wing engine detached on airport property and that the jet had been in a prolonged maintenance hold in San Antonio from early September into mid-October.

NTSB UPDATE, Friday November 7, 2025

"UPDATE TO MEDIA BRIEFING: During yesterday’s media briefing, the preliminary information reported was that FAA ADS-B data indicated a GPS altitude of 475 feet. When considering how FAA ADS-B altitude is reported, this equates to approximately 100 ft above ground level. Data from the flight data recorder is still being validated."

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With News Radio eight forty whas. I want to welcome
aboard Jim Brockley. He is an attorney. He's a former
US Air Force navigator and an attorney in South Carolina
with years of flying experienced. Jim, Welcome to our program.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey Terry, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
So this is obviously fascinating on many fronts. Obviously tragic
first and foremost, but this aircraft that plummeted right back
into those businesses. You've no doubt seen the videos, and
you do a lot of legal work in the aviation realm,
so you're familiar with this sort of a situation, not specifically,

(00:38):
but in terms of the aftermath of a challenge like this.
Am I correct?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. We represent people that have been injured
in accidents, and so part of that is investigating accidents,
which is really the big majority of what I do.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Right These videos are just shocking to see. I mean,
there have been so many now dash mounted videos that
show what happened here a few days ago, and it's
just awful to think about what those pilots were doing
trying to maintain control of that aircraft. Earlier today, the

(01:17):
NTSB did speak on this. I assume you're up to
speed on that about the maintenance record on this particular aircraft.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, it's my understanding that the aircraft and I think
they confirmed that was down in San Antonio for about
six weeks, and I believe, but we haven't been able
to confirm whether that was for scheduled maintenance or that
there was something wrong with the airplane that needed correction.
I had heard, but hadn't confirmed that it was there

(01:47):
for what's known as a basically a D series inspection cycle,
which is real intensive. And you know, obviously the big
thing about this is the fact that the engine came
off of the aircraft, you know, right at takeoff, and
so obviously I think that would be the main focal

(02:09):
point as to whether there had been any work done
either on the engine and or on a pylon that
holds the engine to the wing.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
A D series, though you're talking about a long term
sort of maintenance investigation, does that take six weeks?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
It could. It's done about every five years, and it's
the most in depth. They call them. They're called phase inspection.
So you have like a phase, A, B, Phase C
and A D and A phases are more superficial inspections.
And they're done more often and then this more intensive

(02:47):
inspection phase D is done every five to six years,
and it's more intensive where they're looking at major components,
including you know, potentially including the engines, and that would
be it's curious to see if that's what it was
there for, because during the D phase inspections, they take

(03:11):
a lot of components and a lot of pieces off
the airplane to do inspections and then put it back together.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, essentially they take it apart, is what it is,
to inspect everything for any sort of wear and tear, cracks,
anything that could be developing.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Right, absolutely, absolutely, Okay, so that's that. Yeah, that would
be the big concern, especially when you know, we know
the engine came off and so right, you know they're
gonna be laser focused on what if any work was
done on.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
That engine, right, And we're not speculating about what went
on here, but what we can we can believe our
own eyes. We know that the engine came off. And
you are familiar with aviation, you've flown yourself for for decades.
So let's let's just talk like pilots here. Okay, you
haven't you have a jet that has three engines. The
main is the one under the left, The secondary engine

(04:04):
is up in the orphanage the tail, and then the
third is under the right wing. We know that the
left the video shows us that the left engine was gone.
A lot of people keep pointing to that one video
that shows a white burst of light or puff of
smoke coming out of what looks like Number two, the
one that's up in the tail, and people are saying

(04:26):
out loud, what if the number one engine just came apart,
went to pieces, or a piece of it flew up
and went inside that number two and ruined at or
made the killed off the compressor of the compressor. There's
no way an aircraft fully loaded with fuel for Honolulu,
with all that gross weight from cargo and the weight

(04:49):
of the airplane itself could could fly out on one engine, correct.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Right, especially especially at that low altitude right after takeoff.
I mean, that's the pilots and aircrew's worst scenario is
losing an engine on takeoff. And in that scenario where
you've got potentially losing multiple engines, and anything could have happened.
I mean, it could be that that the blade from
the failed engine, you know, went up and got ingested,

(05:19):
or it could be that the pilots and I guess
we'll find this now that the flight data recorder appears
that it's going to have some data on it. Is
when they lost that engine, they you know, powered up,
you know, even further on the engine and may have
could have oversped it, could have you know, had a
compressor stall and that would have caused that kind of

(05:40):
smoke to depart. So there's definitely a lot of different
scenarios that could have caused that.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, Louisville Airport, the Muhammad Ali Airport is listed at
five hundred and one seat above ground level AGL. I
just heard that report in the news where they were
talking about four hundred and seventy five feet altitude. It
certainly didn't look that way from video. Is it possible
that we're getting some sort of initial reading from a
black box that's really just showing it at ground level

(06:10):
because one end of that runway is four hundred looking
at the plate right now, four hundred and eighty nine
feet elevation. The departure into that airport is listed as
four hundred and sixty one feet elevation.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Sure, so what potentially could be happened if they're getting
that information from the ADSB system, which that when that
altitude is reported a lot of times it's not corrected
for pressure altitude. I've seen this in past accident investigations,
and so they may have to adjust that it's based

(06:46):
on I think if an alter barometric pressure and setting
would be at two nine point nine to two, which
is standard, so anything above standard can change that. You know,
each point would be ten feet, So if it's you know,
thirty point zero zero, that's eight, that'd be eighty feet,

(07:07):
and so that could be you know, something different.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
That's the discrepancy.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
I don't know what. Yeah, without knowing if it'd been
corrected yet, that's where it most certainly could be what
you're seeing there.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
And pilots do set the barometric pressure the altimeter according
to the reading that they're given before they go, so
sometimes there is a little variance in that. And that's
why I was wondering what when I just heard that
four hundred and seventy five feet altitude call out. So
my questions for you are the black box will give
us the exact information as to whether or not the

(07:42):
number one and number two engines went out that that
reports that as well, right.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Right, So the flight to have a recorder does monitor
all the engine performance, so that's gonna should record unless
there's any anomalies with the system, should be able to
record and give the investigators some pinpoint information as to
the performance of both of those engines.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
And then maintenance records. I don't know anything about how
all that's done. And you've done investigations over the years.
Everything is all logged in somewhere. It's all in the
digital universe, right, It's not just some guy at a
filling station filling out a piece of paper, right, this
is something that will be digitally traced.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Oh, absolutely, in order to maintain airworthiness. Basically, anytime anything's
touched on that aircraft it has to be it has
to be documented. All the aircraft have logbooks. They have
multiple logbooks, not only just for the general aircraft, but
they also have them for the engines, for the avionics,

(08:46):
for all different major systems within the aircraft itself, and
so anytime anything's done on it, it has to be
documented and then signed off that the aircraft is fit
for service.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
And because if you do investigations, just give us a sense.
Since you know the NTSB has spoken the last two days,
and I'm I'm starting to think that the public thinks, well,
they'll have a report ready by next weekend. They work
a lot slower and more methodically than that, right.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh, absolutely, I would anticipate that they will. There will
not be a final report with a probably will cause
determination for at least a year and a half and
maybe up to two years. In this case. They will
issue a report here when about thirty days, which is
known as a preliminary report, which is going to be

(09:40):
for the most part superficial information, just kind of factual
background about the flight, but won't really get into the
cause of it. And then they will gather all the
information here, get in their groups back in Washington, d C.
And you know, come up, come up with probable cause.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Okay, that's what I wanted to get from. Is pretty
much a timetable and the inability of flight at with
one engine versus three. I appreciate your insight, mister Brockley,
and maybe we'll talk again down the road soon.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
All right, Well, thanks again for having me on. I
appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
You bet you. That is Jim Brockley live from Charleston,
South Carolina, an attorney and a pilot who has flown
for decades and also has done litigation over airplane tragedies
as well.