BREAKING: UPS cargo plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes near Louisville International Airport in Kentucky

[Warwick1991]

What did they do? Forget to tighten the bolts that held the engine in place? Being sarcastic but I'm really curious how an engine can just fall off.

LOVE that WS has a VI such as @GraceG! What I'd love to know, if you're allowed to speak about this... is how an engine can just fall off. What I'm curious about is it all about the engine/housing or could other things create a series of events that would cause something like this? I don't need specifics. Is this more common than I know? (This is the first time I've heard of an engine falling off a plane). TIA

I have read about fan blade failures that have resulted in incredible damage. Perhaps a spinning fan blade segment cut through the wing.

 

[Gemmie]

Horrific tragic event.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1985929623104794932

SS taken from your link. Wish I could slow down X vids like I can on youtube.

It took several watches but I noticed that the guy must have heard something as he turns from what he's doing toward the source of the noise. Since at this point it's hard to tell the nose of the plane from the trees... I've drawn an arrow pointing to it. It's that blob just above, and to the right of the white square shaped container on its left. What I'm trying to show with this SS is that the guy heard something, and it doesn't appear that the plane has hit ground yet as there are no flames behind it seen at this point. Although they could have been blocked by the containers. No way to know for sure. Why I bring that up is I wonder if he heard an explosion, or if he heard the plane scrape the ground.

In this pic microseconds later you can see some white/light color on the plane. It's going to be super duper hard to see what I'm talking about so 1 pic pointing out the light area, the other without my drawing on it. It's that white roundish area.

As I slowly advance the video, it gets larger. At first I thought it was the color of the plane, but now I'm thinking it's possible that there was fire at the tail end, hidden behind the containers, as that light patch grows as more of the plane comes into view. Perhaps the lightness was "lit up" (like a light) from the fire?

As you can see it's growing as I slowly progress the video. It's the light patch above the thick gap between the right 2 containers. In the 2nd pic you can see that it's getting larger/longer, and brighter toward the right.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1985929623104794932

 

[arielilane]

Wow. He had a front row seat. The perfect view... to a thing you hope to never see. Was he in traffic or parked doing some work or... ?

I am not sure, guessing parked doing work.

BNO News has several live cam videos capturing the crash posted at their X page.

 

[louvillian08]

From 2013...fwiw

Crash investigators trace UPS plane fire to batteries

Investigators recommend better firefighting, to allow pilots more time to land.

www.usatoday.com

That crash was the first time UPS ever had a death with one of their planes. They've typically been a leader in aircraft maintenance and safety... which makes everything coming out about this crash SO unusual.

 

[IceIce9]

That crash was the first time UPS ever had a death with one of their planes. They've typically been a leader in aircraft maintenance and safety... which makes everything coming out about this crash SO unusual.

It is actually the third fatal crash for UPS.

UPS had a previous fatal crash in Birmingham Alabama, an Airbus 300, in 2013.

Both pilots died.

And in 2010 a UPS plane crashed in Dubai, killing both pilots. I think that was a Boeing.

 

[Cryptic]

I have read about fan blade failures that have resulted in incredible damage. Perhaps a spinning fan blade segment cut through the wing.

Maybe a bird strike causes unusually severe fan failure? Things get even worse as the fan failure damages the structure of the wing.....

 

[Em-oh-lee]

I'm local to this. A lot of people may not consider Louisville to be a large, industrialized city (many people just assume everything in Kentucky is rural and sparsely populated), but it is larger than most people realize. The city spans virtually the entirety of Jefferson county, so we have over a million people here. Its location is ideal for many industries as it is considered to be centrally located in terms of trucking and shipping routes, which is a major reason why UPS' Worldport hub is here. And when I say that that place is busy, I mean BUSY. I can stand outside at midnight and look up and see seven or eight incoming UPS planes at any given time, all lined up pointing towards the runways at the airport. Between UPS and regular passenger flights, there is literally a constant stream of planes in our skies 24/7. Seeing planes low to the ground flying right over the highway is so commonplace for us. We never really considered how dangerously close these things come to the industrial area south of the airport until the unthinkable happened Tuesday.
The plane crashed, skidded, and spewed flaming jet fuel into Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts, two companies with which my company does business on a regular basis. I've heard that Grade A is still missing a few employees, and it is devastating to think that some of the friendly, smiling guys who always help us with our parts purchases may not have made it home from their jobs that day. Talk about a disaster lying in wait - crashing plane, jet fuel and fire plus towers of waste oil, full lots of semis and a massive scrapyard full of vehicles equals a catastrophic explosion we thought only existed in movies - until it happened right in our own backyards.

In the three decades I've lived here I've never seen anything of this magnitude happen in our city. I can't even recall any accidents occurring at our airport before this. My dad was out driving when it happened and saw the massive wall of fire and smoke from the highway...he called my mom screaming and couldn't even explain what he had just seen. The air was filled with the black smoke even miles away. It made for such an eerie, otherworldly sight when mixed with the pink and purple sunset. These photos are from my driveway about 5-8 miles away from the crash. So wild.

 

[Chimera]

Footage shows UPS flight without engine moments before crash

Rasim Hadžić had just left the UPS yard and was driving down the road when his dashcam caught the moment Flight 2976 crashed into several buildings and lit into a gigantic fireball.

www.dailymail.co.uk

"Mayor Craig Greenberg said officials believe they have found the bodies of the three UPS workers, but none of the victims' identities have been released."

"Shortly after clearing that fence, it made impact with structures and the terrain off of the airport property," the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

In the video, the powerlines look like they were snagged as the plane passed ?
So much added catastrophe in this tragedy.

Video from article appears to show the plane missing its' engine.

 

[Chimera]

I'm local to this. A lot of people may not consider Louisville to be a large, industrialized city (many people just assume everything in Kentucky is rural and sparsely populated), but it is larger than most people realize. The city spans virtually the entirety of Jefferson county, so we have over a million people here. Its location is ideal for many industries as it is considered to be centrally located in terms of trucking and shipping routes, which is a major reason why UPS' Worldport hub is here. And when I say that that place is busy, I mean BUSY. I can stand outside at midnight and look up and see seven or eight incoming UPS planes at any given time, all lined up pointing towards the runways at the airport. Between UPS and regular passenger flights, there is literally a constant stream of planes in our skies 24/7. Seeing planes low to the ground flying right over the highway is so commonplace for us. We never really considered how dangerously close these things come to the industrial area south of the airport until the unthinkable happened Tuesday.
The plane crashed, skidded, and spewed flaming jet fuel into Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts, two companies with which my company does business on a regular basis. I've heard that Grade A is still missing a few employees, and it is devastating to think that some of the friendly, smiling guys who always help us with our parts purchases may not have made it home from their jobs that day. Talk about a disaster lying in wait - crashing plane, jet fuel and fire plus towers of waste oil, full lots of semis and a massive scrapyard full of vehicles equals a catastrophic explosion we thought only existed in movies - until it happened right in our own backyards.

In the three decades I've lived here I've never seen anything of this magnitude happen in our city. I can't even recall any accidents occurring at our airport before this. My dad was out driving when it happened and saw the massive wall of fire and smoke from the highway...he called my mom screaming and couldn't even explain what he had just seen. The air was filled with the black smoke even miles away. It made for such an eerie, otherworldly sight when mixed with the pink and purple sunset. These photos are from my driveway about 5-8 miles away from the crash. So wild.

Thanks for this info. !
Glad your dad is ok.

How sad for that entire city, UPS facilities, and most of all those who have lost loved ones.

 

[louvillian08]

It is actually the third fatal crash for UPS.

UPS had a previous fatal crash in Birmingham Alabama, an Airbus 300, in 2013.

Both pilots died.

And in 2010 a UPS plane crashed in Dubai, killing both pilots. I think that was a Boeing.

Yes, the article in the comment I quoted was about the first fatal crash in UPS history in 2010. Perhaps re-read my comment because I think you misunderstood

 

[IceIce9]

Grade A Auto Parts – one of two small businesses the governor says were directly impacted by the plane – is now trying to access its computer system to help officials identify customers who were at the facility when the crash happened, according to Garber. It’s unclear exactly how many customers were at the facility at the time, but Garber says there are typically between 15 to 30 customers around that time.

A woman had been dropping off some scrap metal at Grade A Auto Parts after work when the freight plane crashed, her boyfriend Donald Henderson told CNN affiliate WDRB Tuesday night.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/ups-plane-crash-victims-louisville

 

[Chimera]

Grade A Auto Parts – one of two small businesses the governor says were directly impacted by the plane – is now trying to access its computer system to help officials identify customers who were at the facility when the crash happened, according to Garber. It’s unclear exactly how many customers were at the facility at the time, but Garber says there are typically between 15 to 30 customers around that time.

A woman had been dropping off some scrap metal at Grade A Auto Parts after work when the freight plane crashed, her boyfriend Donald Henderson told CNN affiliate WDRB Tuesday night.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/ups-plane-crash-victims-louisville

Thanks for the links, @IceIce9 .

That interview was so sad.

The younger man said he had to walk out of the reunification center as he couldn't take it.
The older man has two kids with the missing woman.
Omo.

Here is the map of the two businesses in the flight path :

 

[IceIce9]

Thanks for the links, @IceIce9 .

That interview was so sad.

The younger man said he had to walk out of the reunification center as he couldn't take it.
The older man has two kids with the missing woman.
Omo.

Here is the map of the two businesses in the flight path :


View attachment 623669

So sad. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time……

 

[IceIce9]

Investigators are working without pay due to the government shutdown.

Deadly UPS plane crash in Louisville: What we know and what we don't

Tuesday was a devastating day in Louisville after a UPS plane crashed during takeoff. Here is everything we know so far and everything we do not.

www.wlky.com

Investigation​

The NTSB is leading the investigation and 28 members arrived in Louisville on Wednesday.

They are currently working without pay due to the government shutdown.

 

[Ashleym324]

I'm assuming your husband is OK?

I heard a pilot say last night on YouTube that this plane would have had 3 times the fuel of any of the planes that crashed on 9/11. I also remember the alerts put out for people to shelter in place for a 5-mile perimeter at first, later reduced to 1 mile.

He is okay! He works nights so he wasn’t there at the time.
I personally got the alert while in class which was in the 5 mile radius. Honestly, when they first sent out the alert my first thought was it was a mass shooting at the airport. So sad that’s where my mind goes these days.
It was creepy going home after class though because I had to pass the scene. Seeing the smoke even in the night was a lot.

 

[arielilane]

Crew of UPS Flight 2976 identified:

- Captain Richard Wartenberg
- First Officer Lee Truitt
- Relief Officer Capt. Dana Diamond

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986564720350958035

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986543870637695030

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986441070562144731

 

[arielilane]

Flight records show the 34-year-old UPS cargo plane had been grounded for more than SIX WEEKS before the crash for fuel tank repairs.


12 people are now confirmed dead.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986575695850463654

 

[arielilane]

Twelve victims of the UPS flight 2976 tragedy have been recovered and are being identified. If you know anyone you believe was in the area who is still missing, please reach out (800) 631-0604.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986574131660251272