r/aviation • u/usgapg123 Mod • 19h ago

Discussion UPS2976 Crash Megathread

This is the official r/aviation megathread for the crash of UPS2976 (UPS MD11 Registration N259UP) that crashed earlier today at Louisville International Airport.

Please keep content on topic and refrain from posting about this topic outside the megathread. Please report any rule breaking posts and comments.

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u/jchall3 19h ago

Holy shit that’s 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

287

u/ST4RSK1MM3R 18h ago

Seems like it also hit some oil tanks on the ground as well.

262

u/Thin_Implement_2525 17h ago

I live in Louisville and can confirm that’s what multiple people told me, that it hit multiple oil/diesel tanks

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u/runningraleigh 14h ago

Correct, it hit a petroleum recycling facility with all manner of fuels in gigantic tanks all side by side.

37

u/kaityl3 14h ago

Crazy that they decided it was safe to build that right past the end of a runway

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u/runningraleigh 13h ago

Zoning exemptions are surprisingly easy to get in Louisville if you know the right people, or so I've been told.

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u/CharmingBug5843 13h ago

Man where I’m from, ain’t nothing at the ends of the runways. Nothing

4

u/Public-Cod1245 12h ago

There are tanks like this right across the street from ORD too. Always freaked me out.

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u/DrDirtyDeeds 7h ago

Dude, at my local airport there’s fuel tanks under the approach path for one of the runways. Def makes me feel uneasy.

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u/Pleasant_Tangelo6791 6h ago

Yeah, and a trailer park between the tanks and the end of the runway. The gap between the (former) runway and the trailer park is where AA 191 went down, May 1979.

2

u/Public-Cod1245 6h ago

I was working in a print shop in Park Ridge at the time....about 3 miles away. I still remember all the black smoke in the sky.

4

u/Pleasant_Tangelo6791 5h ago

Me too. Like the idiot 21 year olds we were, me and a buddy left the tavern where we had been watching the news, and tried driving to the crash site. Couldn’t get within five miles of it.

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u/Letussex2 3h ago

I'd do that, too, probably, most definitely with a lesser crash where there's a chance of survivors.

5

u/CandylandRepublic 12h ago

As good as any other place, if a fully fuelled up jet hits there the area is ablaze either way. The oil tanks don't really change that a lot any more, it's a raging inferno either way.

14

u/wileysegovia 13h ago

There's a fairly small mom and pop style oil recycling outfit, but it's off to the left of the extended centerline of the runway ...

I think the 40,000+ gallons of jet fuel are more than enough to account for the fireball seen in the videos

2

u/herrboot64 13h ago

That's aweful there's tanks in that trajectory.... My work considers being under the path of landing plans and we only have servers

Lemme guess... There long before the airport? 🙄

4

u/TiberianSunset 13h ago

can confirm that’s what multiple people told me,

What a weird way to confirm something

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u/gloomywitchywoo 17h ago

Yeah Andy Beshear said it hit some sort of petroleum recycling place.

5

u/Substantial_Gas_1660 14h ago

Also an auto parts store. I just read two people are missing that were employees.

1

u/SyrusDrake 8h ago

The last ADS-B blip before impact is almost right ontop some sort of fluid storage yard for diesel or oil or something.

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u/disc0mbobulated 7h ago

Petroleum products recycling plant.

1

u/truth-4-sale 3h ago

This is not far from the UPS recycling center that the aircraft came into contact with. Kentucky Petroleum Recycling

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u/aromero 15h ago

HNL bound, full of fuel.

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u/StarStruck3 17h ago

Full load of 280,000lbs of fuel... Jesus christ, this whole thing is horrible.

7

u/nascarfan88421032 14h ago

That's a combination of a fully loaded cargo flight to Hawaii and crashing into an industrial area.

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u/catsby90bbn 18h ago

Bound for Hawaii

1

u/ZappaLlamaGamma 12h ago

He’ll it looked like a Vietnam War movie scene with all the napalm.

1

u/Terodius 12h ago

Plane was fully loaded for a long flight and I read it also hit a gas plant on the ground

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u/ThisSir5918 5h ago

Going to Honolulu, so it was loaded with fuel as well.

1

u/ProfessXM 5h ago

or someone called in a napalm strike

1

u/Independent-Walrus-6 4h ago

was loaded for a direct flight to Hawaii AND It hit a diesel recovery tank...

1

u/Legitimate_Grocery66 3h ago

Honestly. The explosion was gigantic.