UPS MD-11 crash at SDF

knot4u said:
He knew I was finishing up A/P school and told me he'd forward my short resume to the right people in Louisville but also said I'd have to move there for a while. I was young and dumb and I lived in SoCal and the thought of moving to Kentucky seemed like a horrible idea, was it a mistake on my part? Hard to say but my life would certainly be different today had I followed his advice.
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Yeah, you gotta pay your dues on the MX side before you get the seniority to go someplace nice. ONT was pretty junior but not like SDF.
 
DE727UPS said:
Yeah, you gotta pay your dues on the MX side before you get the seniority to go someplace nice. ONT was pretty junior but not like SDF.
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He was a New Yorker with the accent and a huge Islanders fan. How he ended up at KBUR I don't know but he did seem to know what he was doing so maybe when they opened that station they sent someone they knew was competent and capable to ensure everything would run smoothly. For all I know he might've been one of UPS MXs All Stars and he has a flag hanging from the rafters in their big MX hangar. Burbank is not a horrible place to live if you're getting paid to be there, I can think of other stations that would be much less attractive, including Ontario. Back then the entire area around Chino (Ontario adjacent) was still rural and smelled like cow crap.
 
WacoFan said:
My aunt was an FA for TWA from 1968-2000. She traded OUT of TWA 800. And it messed with her a lot. Not just survivors guilt, but the supreme confidence in things.
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My Dad was a Connie FE for EAL way back in the day. He was scheduled to fly on EAL 642 but called out because his mother had died. The plane crashed and everyone perished. Fast forward 60 years and at almost 90 years old and he still had survivor's guilt.
 
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Blue skies and tail winds brothers.
 
Long time lurker here. Never posted before but I've flown with several of y'all before at various operators.

With that said, this crash hits differently for some reason. My first ever jumpseat ride when I became an airline pilot was on a UPS MD-11. I had no clue what I was doing, and was extremely nervous when checking in at the cargo center, which was then compounded when my brand new ID/information didn't show up in the system. After we got that solved I had no clue who I was supposed to check in with or talk to, and the UPS crews were more than happy to help me with that.

I'll never forget that flight - the crew let me sleep in the crew bunks, gave me food, and then invited me to the flight deck for the landing which I still remember vividly to this day 8 years later.

I don't want to speculate on this accident as I dont feel like it's my place to do, but just want to say godspeed to the crew and their families.
 
A300Capt said:
The FedEx Chief pilot wrote a very moving and touching letter to his pilot group expressing his condolences to the UPS pilot group. Class act! Thank you to the brothers and sisters at Purple….❤️
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mikecweb said:
Glad to hear. MC is very new to that role. Glad he is represented the Purple pilots well.
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MC is class act and we're very lucky to have him in that role. I thought his letter last night was fantastic! As I said before, he's an MD guy, also. He was head of the MD Training Program and then the entire Training Department before transitioning to SCP last month.
 
I didn't really know him, but the FO was from ABQ. I lived in NM from 2006 until about 3 years ago and did my flight training/worked out of the area for a while. I do remember back in 2013ish when I was a CFI and I believe he was as well and I attended some WX seminar that he spoke at. Additionally, I want to say I encountered him and chatted with him a time or two when I was commuting to ORD out of ABQ for Eagle-voy and he was doing the same commute for SKW, but I'm only 98% certain that was him. NM aviation is super small though, so I immediately recognized the name.

RIP to all 3 as well as the victims on the ground...
 
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HeyEng said:
I read that Capt Diamond was in the first class when UPS became an airline. If true....just wow. 🥺
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I was actually 3 weeks senior to Dana based on actual hire date but he was more senior because he came from one of the UPS contract carriers (I was an outside hire) so in 1988 he was placed above me seniority wise. Yea…it’s a little confusing but that’s how it worked back then during the first year of the airline. Neither of us were in the first class but certainly within the first 2 months of it.

Dana was a great guy and a big union advocate on safety matters right up to the end. RIP..
 
HeyEng said:
I read that Capt Diamond was in the first class when UPS became an airline. If true....just wow. 🥺
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I flew with him when he was a 72 F/O and I was a S/O. Probably around 91 plus or minus a year. I would have been 30 and he was a year or two younger than me.
 
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