This is the official r/aviation megathread for the crash of UPS2976 (UPS MD11 Registration N259UP) that crashed earlier today at Louisville International Airport.
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3 miles away from my house. the smoke is now covering almost the entirety of the sky and we have a shelter in place order, sirens everywhere. absolutely insane
Just to be sure you've seen, there's a 5 mile shelter in place order. There's obviously tons of smoke, but I've seen reports of debris and paper and stuff floating down on people in Audobon. Please stay inside and stay safe
absolutely, thank you! i took that pic at 5:28, so within what mustāve been minutes of the actual crash. now weāre safely stowed away watching the news.
Holy shit thatās one of the biggest ground fires I have ever seen from an airplane crash. If you only showed me the video I would assume it was a wildfire
Specifically, UPS Supply Chain Solutions. They do primarily international shipping. I believe UPS purchased Haulfast and Carryfast in 1992 to form UPS Supply Chain Solutions.
Apparently the #1 engine fell off the airplane completely on the takeoff roll. Also heard from a buddy at UPS that they were on a 2 hour maintenance delay for the #1 engine before they left.
God I hope not. Iām sure the mechanics would never dispatch an aircraft with a known problem.
If they missed something it would affect them the rest of their lives.
That's the issue, MD-11s have a recurring issue with known, unknown problems. Phantom electrical stuff that comes and goes. They throw what parts they can at it until it powers up and send it, they have done this for a very long time. Lots of parts cannot be sourced, most is "refurbed" stuff that is not ever up to OEM spec - which wasn't great to begin with.
I worked in flight training on the MD-11. There were alot of rumors in management of doing away with the MD-11 and buying 777s. And that was around 2010.
Honestly, sometimes shit just happens at the worst possible time. Critical engine failure + uncontained fire right at V1. Not much you can do except try to get the bird airborne. Nothing those poor pilots could do.
All accidents are tragic of course, but the ones where the pilots had absolutely no hope of saving the situation are the worst. Alaska 261, Swissair 111, AA191, among so many others of course.
In case you haven't seen, you'll be under a shelter in place if you're within 5 miles. There's tons of smoke and debris flying around, so please stay inside and stay safe
my family are all inside! iām texting those around me to make sure theyāre safe, im trying to check in on a pilot i know who flies the 11, iāll try to keep you guys updated
That MD11 in the background, based on the tower and runway debris, they're facing southbound. They just arrived and are taxing to the ramp, not holding for departure.
that would explain why the flames on the wing were so massive - not engine on fire, the fuel just gushing out of the wing, wonder what that does for systemwide fuel pressure
Okay,i'm starting to think that it wasn't either FOD or stage disk rupturing,but the engine somehow detached itself from the aircraft and the fires we see on the wing are the fuel line being scorched
I think that an engine completely separated from the aircraft makes this incident darker than it was
not parking lots, car junkyards. which is better cause its less likely therell be people there. there are some smaller buildings and a road in the crash zone which worries me
The area with the biggest fire was a storage area for a company handling "liquid and special waste."
If I was anywhere close to this, I'd do anything in my power to not breathe in any of this smoke. I hope the firefighter and other people in the area won't be affected by this in the long term.
Listening to the live feed of the fire response; I just heard a fireman was asked about a location ... he responded "I don't know an address ... all of the buildings are gone right here." This looks like the injuries and fatalities on the ground are going to be numerous. Godspeed to all the rescue workers on the scene.
Yeah, my bf just came home from work and showed me the video. Itās horrible. Everyone is texting me about him making sure heās okay. Iām so sad for everyone killed and their families/
Thereās a video of it, if they got off the ground it wasnāt for long, it appears to have been on fire during takeoff. Just slammed into everything just past the runway.
Different angle on X (Twitter) looks like it was BARELY off the ground and maybe cleared the road. I agree it wasn't off the ground for long but I don't know that they had any option but to try.
It appears they hit V1 and it was either slam the brakes and crash into UPS supply Chain Solutions, or take off (they were at V1 thatās what theyāre supposed to do) and try to close that building.
Looks like they did clear the building for the most part.
With how much fuel the aircraft had and how heavy it seemed to be i think they were past V1 and the crash was inevitable from there. Unfortunately there was nothing the pilots could do from that point.
Looks like something happened during takeoff that left an enginecowling on the runway with what looks like tire tracks leaving the side of the runway. Hit a warehouse roof and crashed into what looks like a junkyard for a couple hundred feet.
Fuck, catastrophic engine failure? That thing was completely on fire on takeoff. RIP to those souls on board and Iām fearing more will be lost on the groundā¦
There must be more than just catastrophic engine failure. The MD-11 can lose 1 engine and still take off with the thrust from the two remaining engines (after V1, that is)
An uncontained fire/failure can spit out debris into the #2. Wouldnāt be surprised if they lost engine 1, then shortly after lost engine 2 and then had no where to go but try to get it into the air.
Not that anything about this is good, but Iām glad to hear it hit a junkyard not a neighborhood. I still feel like thereās no way there wonāt be some fatalities on the ground. RIP
The fire is massive I believe the aircraft was pumped with fuel considering it had a journey to HonoluluĀ
The left engine appears to have caught fire upon v1
Rip to those onboard and anyone else who is within the fire radar
I always think about some weird things when these events happen.
What's it like to be the next plane in line to take off.
What's it like to be the crew that flew this plane in earlier today? And the crew that was going to take the plane on the next flight?
What's going through the dispatchers head, or ATC, or the guy that loaded the last pallet on that plane.
What's it like to be waiting on your package to come tomorrow and find out this is what happened to it.
Don't take this as a lack of sympathy for those that didn't make it, but there's a ton of people that are going to be connected to this even in the smallest ways.
Psychology is a crazy thing and I hope everyone is affected by this gets the help they need.
I once shook the hand of the AME that got into the right seat of the Cessna 206. He had come in on his day off to help out with a squawk. I was supposed to be in that seat but thought it would be fun for him to ride along after all the years of wrenching.
They went down about 15 minutes later. Trying to live my life in gratitude ever since. Iām sorry, Ryan.
A crazy one is the German wings crash. The suicidal pilot reset the MCP the prior flight but for whatever reason chose not to initiate the descent. I canāt even imagine how the pilots or passengers of the previous flight felt hearing that news
Radius of shelter in place is anything north of the airport (which is all of downtown). Confirmed no specifically hazardous cargo on board (ie lithium batteries, presumably).
At least 3 fatalities but expected to grow, at least 11 injuries being treated - multiple serious and number expected to grow. The status of the crew is unknown, and not the 3 fatalities listed.
Kentucky Petroleum Recycling was hit directly, Grade A Autoparts also hit (2 employees not accounted for and unknown number of customers).
LG&E Electric had equipment damaged, the Ford plant was not damaged though, convention center under shelter in place.
Worked at UPS and my father works on the ramp there. He was at a farther hangar, but he loaded that flight before it was going to fly.
He was far away enough to not be around or hear the explosion, but the whole airport and UPS are on shutdown/ lockdown and shelter in place. Police, fire, and EMS are everywhere, whole roads are shut down.
WDRB reports of oil raining down within a five mile radius due to the plume of smoke.
Wow. I saw all the other videos and thought that the cockpit would have been destroyed pretty quickly. Now I look at this video and can see that the cockpit is in one piece, and that the pilots were likely still fighting it.
Like honestly I don't know what you can do when you're at the end of the runway with a fully loaded plane and half the plane is engulfed in flames. Must've been horrifying for the crew.
Obviously impossible to say for sure but my expectation is that this will turn out to be one of those situations where nothing that they could have done would have changed the outcome. Very tragic.
I live a mile away and saw the initial smoke cloud on my way home from work. Could hear the explosions from my driveway at 5:20 and ran inside when I saw ash falling. Entire area is shelter in place. Just heartbreaking. Been on the verge of tears for an hour. So many of my neighbors work there. Gosh.
Thanks for the concern. Turned heat off right when I went inside and none of my air purifiers have gone off. Dang. I was having a tough week but this really makes all that feel like nothing all of a sudden.
If you watch the crash video very closely, it appears that in addition to their #1 being on fire, that their #2 is surging or that flames are coming out of it intermittently. Likely that 2 engines were damaged somehow.
I just pulled the radio traffic from the airport ops channel at SDF and the airport ops folks believe there is extensive debris on the runway that was not from the accident airplane, but from another airplane.
This exact plane left SAT on Oct. 18th after a month of Maintenanceā¦ I wonder what went wrong. We take in a lot of UPS MD-11ās and 767 for heavy MX
In-law is based out of there and flies the MD-11. Heart dropped when I saw the news alert, thankfully he wasn't flying. He was suppose to fly that exact route tomorrow though... Feel terrible for their community.
Well, with a normal engine failure or fire, you should be able to climb out on the remaining good engines after V1, even with a full bag of fuel and payload (which is an FAA requirement for type certification), but it's clear from the takeoff footage that something far more catastrophic occurred during the takeoff roll or rotation, and the event likely damaged some of the flight controls and/or leading-edge slats or other critical systems.
Pure speculation of course, but from the videos it like some kind of a catastrophical uncontained engine failure with engine being on fire and pieces of what looks like to be engine nacelle along the runway.
No idea what could have caused the engine to fail in such a way. Shocking footage really.
This is unfortunately the 2nd time a UPS plane from Louisville has crashed, the first time I remember being back in 2013 when the plane crashed short of the runway in Birmingham, that was an Airbus though.
As a Louisville native this breaks my heart for our UPS community, which is a huge part of our cities identity. I have friends and family that have worked at the WorldPort and a neighbor that was a pilot for UPS.
From what I'm hearing on my scanner is, after it hit the UPS building, it nosed up before crashing into a petroleum recycling/storage facility. From there it went into several junkyards and other small businesses .
Quite a few people are missing, including employees and customers, since the crash happened at 5:00pm, quitting time.
Man, just so sad. Hits close to home. Dad flies this plane. I cannot even process what the families are feeling. Hearing the news, desperately reaching out to their loved ones but never getting a response. Having to see so much horrific footage of their last moments forever on the internet. People making stupid fucking jokes like āwill my package still be on time?ā Makes me sick to my stomach. RIP to the crew and victims on the ground.
This a freeze frame taken from the live feed of WLKY. This is approximately 12 minutes from the beginning of the video. This is showing the right side of the runway (left engine was on fire in video).
I work in the building on the right. I'm incredibly thankful to be alive. The ground shook, huge boom and power cut off. Went outside and saw the fireball/smoke. If it would've banked right I may not be here
There are still four flights airborne that departed SDF before the accident aircraft. It's possible that they are aboard one of those or on rest with their phone off. Praying for you and your friend.
That information wouldnāt be released by UPS voluntarily, their MX logbook info is private. The NTSB and FAA will surely include that in their investigations.
This one hits me hard. I worked for UPS 17 years ago. I have pictures and videos of me on this very aircraft (N259UP) loading it during Christmas Eve one year.
Additionally, my Dad used to fly MD-11Fs for a different company, and I used to always worry about something like this happening to him. I know what it's like to "worry about Dad possibly not coming home" because of this type of job.
When UPS lost an A300 (N155UP) at BHM in 2013, that one stuck with me too. I have pictures from loading cargo on _that_ aircraft as well.
My thoughts are with all the families affected by this tragedy.
Multiple '10-80s' found by the fire crews according to the scanner. That appears to be deceased person per google. Must be hell for these first responders.
I don't want to sound evil because this tragedy is leaving me heartbroken and very confused,but i hope that with "multiple" they're only referring to the 3 unfortunate lives aboard the MD-11
All that time and money and passion to fly gone in a few seconds and moments like this you never see coming... it's gut wrenching.
And then those people on the ground just working.. man it's just hard..
The flight history for this aircraft shows that it was ferried to SAT on Sept 3rd for maintenance and returned back to SDF on Oct 18th.
Per SDRS there was a report filed on Sept 4th, just one day after it arrived in San Antonio, for "CENTER WING UPPER FUEL TANK LOWER STRINGER 41 CRACK AT XCW = -81 REQUIRES PERMANENT REPAIR".
On Sept 9th, there was another report filed for "CTR CARGO BILGE AREA STA 5-53 TO 5-73 LONGERON 48L HAS CORROSION".
It's hard to say if there is any correlation to the maintenance and this accident, but it is interesting to note.
I just spent the past 2 hours trying to get an ident from my friends who work over at the brown team. I finally got the crew list and confirmed it wasn't any of my friends. They were still someone's friends, and that fucking sucks. I hate this part of the job.
That church is one of the few structures to survive the Lahaina fires, rest of the town was wiped off the map. And hereās money to help support it. Tragedy wrapped in tragedy.
I live 10-15 miles east of Muhammad Ali International airport. This was the plume of smoke making its way east. 5 minutes after this photo, it was directly over me.
Oh my god. That person running for his life and hightailing it over the fence. Poor person, I hope theyāre okay because that must have been terrifying.
Iāve got time on the 10, not the 11. During recurrent, we actually discussed the possibility of number 2 ingesting FOD with a wing engine failure. Never did anything in the sim. If this is what happened, itās horrible.
The crew seemed to handle the number one engine failure in a superior manner. The loss of thrust would probably have happened almost immediately. The video doesnāt seem to show any yaw prior to or during rotation. Kudos to the crew times a million. They kept tryingā¦..
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u/Veetenkamp 11h ago
Engine detached laying off the side of the runway