Boeing 2011 Warning May Offer Clues Into 2025 UPS Jet Crash

Boeing Co. warned operators in 2011 that a key structural component found cracked in the plane involved in November’s fatal crash of a United Parcel Service Inc. freighter had failed on prior occasions.

The planemaker issued a service letter in February of that year notifying MD-11 operators of four past failures on three different planes to a part known as the spherical bearing race, safety investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said on Wednesday. The component helps to relieve high loads and vibrations.