In the press reports about the Nova Scotia crash, it was mentoioned that the MD-11 is not a popular plane with commerical passengers. In fact, the article said that AA is selling all of its MD-11s to FedEx, but that the plane was VERY popular with shipping companies. Anyone have any insight as to why this is so? Is it a comfort, speed, fuel efficeincy or some other issue?

It sounds like Md-11 have wiring problems.Only U.S. airlines were ordered to upgrade wiring.International airlines were exempt from that order.

Main reason for MD-11 popularity with cargo carriers (I think) is the added width (compared with a 767) allows wider pallets to be loaded. Conversely, the 3d engine hasn't proven to be necessary for ETOPS operations, yet adds $$$ for the airlines. Grew up in St. Louis (home of McDonnell Douglas) so always paid attention to such things.

wiring problems: when McDouglas/Boeing informed officially about those wiring-problems about 18 months ago, Swissair informed that they had done the (from Boeing recommended) adjustements already 3 months before. And they handed over that evidence (the maintenance-protocols which were confiscated 3 hours after the accident by the Swiss police) to the Canadian-investigators.

Let's not speculate; hopefully the black-boxes will help to find out the tragic-reason(s), and hopefully this will help to make adjustements and in the long-term make flying even safer.

I'm not aware of any other MD-11 problems (even though it's the successor to the DC-10), and I don't think anyone should draw any conclusions about the aircraft until this investigation is complete. Of course, I can be complacent, since I seldom fly internationally and so seldom encounter an MD-11.

The following link is an article comparing the MD11 to the 757...very interesting.

http://www.hfxnews.southam.ca/Crash/swissair82.html

This Canadian site has had excellent coverage of the MD11, from the article:

During the five-year period, there were 167 safety-related eports and recommendations filed on fewer than 50 U.S.-based MD-11s. There were only 144 filed on behalf of more than 300 U.S.-based 757s.

Richman said the number of safety reports on MD-11s is particularly disturbing given the departures involved - 96,500 for the MD-11s compared with almost 2.2 million for the 757s, or almost 23 times as many 757 takeoffs.

He also cited flying hours - 594,400 MD-11 hours compared with 5.2 million for the 757. He calls the results troublesome:

To clarify -

My previous post regarding the MD11 was specific to Swissair Flight 111. The Canadian site front page is http://www.hfxnews.southam.ca.

Justin: thank you for your informations - if you allow me, I will make a print-out and send it to our local Zurich newspaper (there is a generally Swissair critical journalist working for them) for analyzing/inquiring.

ok?