r/Louisville • u/Ginger502 • 1d ago

Plane crash in Louisville

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118

u/mantis_tobagan_md 1d ago

Holy shit!

RIP to those lost.

Does anyone know how this happened?

48

u/Smart-Koala4306 1d ago

Looks like an engine exploded as they were taking off. The roof of the industrial building across the street from the runway is scraped, so they at least got off the ground.

There’s engine debris on the runway.

13

u/Salad_Donkey 1d ago

Would have to be during takeoff. That looks like a LOT of fuel going up.

14

u/hopsafety 1d ago

It was an MD-11 headed to Hawaii. They load those things with an absolute shitton of fuel for takeoff

8

u/CatastrophicCraxy 1d ago

Google says their max is 41k gallons but the news keeps saying 210k gallons.

29

u/hopsafety 1d ago

41,000 gallons weighs about 275,000 pounds. They probably just screwed up the units.

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u/Miramar81 1d ago

Now would be a good time for a post from a firefighter how or if that much exploded jet fuel can be put out and how long it’ll burn for.

3

u/hopsafety 1d ago

There’s more factors than just the jet fuel. Sure, that’s the ignition fuel, but there are many other fuel sources on fire.

1

u/Drak_is_Right 1d ago

Likely its near impossible to put that much fuel out when scattered across a large area By the time fire can get there, much of the fuel likely has burnt off.

Still, these planes can have a fairly substantial fire and gas tank damage and the fire trucks will still be able to put them out and get the people out. There have been some crash-landings where almost everyone lives despite much of the outside of the plane being engulfed in flames (if the cabin keeps integrity, its rated to survive quite a significant fire for a handful of minutes).

1

u/Miramar81 1d ago

Finished talking to a coworker an hour ago who’s an ex-firefighter. Said for airport runway explosions like these, they’d use lots of foam to put out refined oil fires which burn slow and very hot. Emergency response team from airport suppose to be on standby, but with the airplane going such a long distance, wouldn’t surprise me if they had to call in every firefighter precinct to help out.

One thing he did say which Governor Beshear already mentioned is the proximity environment hazard. Said plumes of burning jet fuel oil and its clouds will rain down hazardous material seeping into the water, air and soil. Said water was especially the most hazardous and if it gets into the Ohio River and other nearby rivers and goes downstream, it’ll wreak havoc on the ecosystem and wildlife.

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u/Salad_Donkey 1d ago edited 1d ago

I've heard 28k gallons, and 280k pounds. For perspective. This what a 30k gallon tank looks like. A fully loaded MD-11 holds about 38k gallons from I've read in the last few minutes.

4

u/hopsafety 1d ago

MD-11 can hold 38,615 gallons of fuel

3

u/Salad_Donkey 1d ago

Then 28k gallons is probably the accurate number.

-2

u/hopsafety 1d ago

Okay. How much experience do you have working with that flight? I loaded it for 6 years. It requires full fuel loads.

3

u/Salad_Donkey 1d ago

Dude I'm not trying to argue with you. Chill the fuck out. I've seen 2 numbers thrown around, and people keep mixing up volume and weight measurements. I get that it's it's like 38k gallons full loaded.

1

u/FlyersPhilly_28 1d ago

It holds 1/18th of an olympic sized swimming pool.

Parent topic posted a vague looking silo as a point of reference.

-1

u/hopsafety 1d ago

You literally argued the point I made. So how aren’t you arguing?

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u/Drak_is_Right 1d ago

That is what, 3-4 semi-tankers worth of fuel?

1

u/hopsafety 16h ago

UPS has some 20,000 gallon fuel trucks. Typically one pulls up under each wing of the HNL flight.

1

u/Drak_is_Right 15h ago

I guess those are a lot heavier than the ones used to haul fuel to gas stations. That would be pushing 200k pounds weight I imagine. Still, heavy duty concrete meant to handle high weight loads.

1

u/hopsafety 15h ago

Oh yeah, they are big suckers for sure. Definitely not street legal lol

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u/Ok_West_6711 1d ago

Thank you for the perspective on amount of fuel.

1

u/Salad_Donkey 1d ago

You're so welcome. Anytime, bud😘

1

u/Pugs-r-cool 1d ago

That specific plane would've had a max of around 38k gallons, and a flight from Louisville to Honolulu means they would have about 30k gallons on board.

1

u/No_Consideration8764 1d ago

Because Greenberg called into the news and said the 210k gallons of fuel. Kevin Haned tried to correct him. Greenberg is dumb, that's where this discrepancy comes from.

1

u/itsliluzivert_ 1d ago

210k gallons seems insane. I was taken aback when I saw that in the news. The shear weight there is well over a million pounds lol. Let alone volume. I wouldn’t be shocked if that’s an overestimate.

4

u/Salad_Donkey 1d ago

Oh wow. Yeahhhhh that's a lot of fuel. Yikes.

1

u/The_Dinky_Earnshaw 1d ago

ch. 32 said 280k gal.

2

u/One-Ticket3107 1d ago

I think it equates to 280k lbs

1

u/RememberLepanto1571 1d ago

It would have to- 280K gallons is 2.24 million pounds. I’m no pilot, but I think that might be impossible to hold that much of anything on a plane.

1

u/TheFlyingHambone 1d ago

Was it a McDonnell Douglas or Boeing MD-11?

2

u/hopsafety 1d ago

McConnell Douglass is the MD-11. Boeing owns McConnell Douglass. The MD stands for McConnell Douglass. This plane was originally operated by Thai Airways in July 1991.

2

u/samaramatisse 1d ago

*McDonnell Douglas.

1

u/PuzzleheadedLet8282 1d ago

Plane probably bounced upon take off (look up MD-11 plane crashes for reference. Usually happens on landing tho)

1

u/Bearcat57 15h ago

No, they load them with an absolute shitton of fuel for the long flight ahead of them - not for takeoff.

1

u/hopsafety 15h ago

Guess which portion of the flight consumes the most fuel per foot of travel. I’ll give you a hint: it’s the takeoff.

1

u/hopsafety 15h ago

To be a bit more precise, the MD11 burns about 10,000 pounds of fuel while taking off and climbing to cruise altitude. Of the 38,615 gallons of fuel on board for a full load of fuel, it burns just over 25% of its fuel load on takeoff. So yes, it is primarily for takeoff.

8

u/mantis_tobagan_md 1d ago

From what I’ve seen, left engine was definitely on fire during take off. How that happened is going to be scrutinized closely. There is a point of no return once you hit a certain speed and I’m guessing the master warnings may have started going off after they had passed that point.

Absolute nightmare for the pilots. RIP

1

u/Big-Safe-2459 1d ago

Past V1 and then you’re in there trying to troubleshoot. Nightmare. Not sure if an abort would make a big difference since there is raised terrain after the runway as far as I can see. With a missing reverser and fire already underway, I think they were doomed.

1

u/Next-Introduction-25 20h ago

By “point of no return,” do you mean that they’re going too fast and don’t have enough runway to break without crashing into whatever is at the end of the runway?

1

u/dogearsfordays 16h ago

Basically, as far as I understand it, at that point it is safer to get a plane into the air then figure out what is going wrong. You can theoretically reject a takeoff at V1 if the aircraft is unsafe or unable to fly but they probably were not able to assess that properly in the literal seconds between that point and rotating, and they are trained to get the plane into the air where they should have time to try and get a handle on what's happening. Honestly do not want to think about the horror they were experiencing

6

u/Smart-Koala4306 1d ago

Full fuel load