The aircrew of UPS Airlines flight 5X-259 called the tower with slat issues on approach into Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN). Once on the ground, they discovered that two pieces of metal alloy had come off the plane as it was landing.
According to a short incident description from the Aviation Herald, the pilots landed at a higher than normal airspeed due to the slat malfunction caused by the missing panels. It’s believed the parts were lost within a 10-mile radius of the airfield.
UPS’s Veteran Freighter
The jet in question is a Boeing 767-300F registered as N393UP, serial number 29228, according to Planespotters.net records. First delivered in 1998 to LAN Chile as a passenger configured 767-300, the cargo converted airliner is over 27 years old. After serving LAN Chile for nearly two decades, it was flown by LATAM Chile briefly then sold to Cargo Aircraft Management (CAM).
CAM converted the plane, but only possessed it for about a year before UPS Airlines leased the jet in 2020. The airfield at Cologne is seeing more traffic every year as UPS is ramping up its traffic through the cargo hub. In recent years, UPS has added more routes to Cologne from intra-Europe fields.
Michiel van Veen, Managing Director, UPS Nordics, commented in a 2022 press release:
“We are continuing to develop our European network to meet the growing e-commerce demand for the region… to expand into global markets faster, thanks to a new connection to our global air network.”
Putting The Workhorses Through Their Paces
Cargo jets are routinely flown a bit harder than their passenger counterparts due to lack of concern for passenger comfort. The payloads are often higher than passenger jets as, at least on average. Flight ranges can vary widely just like passenger flights, for example, before N393UP landed just after midnight on Tuesday, it had only been in the air for about an hour and a half, according to FlightAware.
As with any plane, more cycles means more wear and tear. Those heavily-loaded short hops demand a lot of power from the engines on takeoff, put strain on the airframe, landing gear, flaps and slats. Inevitably, there will be breakage, but the goal is for maintenance to get ahead of those events with preventative maintenance.
That is a more challenging task on older planes like N393UP. Newer jets like the upcoming A350F and 777X freighters promise to have digitalized maintenance computers that can project maintenance requirements based on continuous data feeds from the planes systems. On legacy platforms, all of that has to be calculated based on inspections and analysis of airframe and fleet trends.
Post-COVID-19 E-Commerce Boom
The global fleet of air freighters is working hard in 2025, including all the other operators around the world like FedEx, Atlas Air, and more. The demand for new 767 and A320 freighters is far higher than the supply that Boeing or Airbus can produce. The same is true of conversion builds based on retired airliners, like N393UP. That is largely being driven by the ever-increasing demand for e-commerce transport across the globe.
The last 747-8Fs rolled off the line in 2023, with the final three 747s ever made going to Atlas Air’s freighter fleet. Meanwhile, the 777X freighter is nearly a decade behind schedule because the passenger variant it will be based on is still struggling to get certification. It will be the biggest twinjet ever made, which promises to be a strong replacement for that 747 that features better operating costs akin to a smaller 767.
The Airbus A350 passenger jet is already on the market, proving itself as a reliable, cost-effective, safe, and comfortable airliner. The cargo hauling variant, however, is yet to be released. Airbus may or may not beat the 777X freighter to market, but either way, every cargo carrier around the world is waiting to buy. Old jets like N393UP will be pushing the extreme limit of service age by the time they finally hit the boneyard.
