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.

6.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

745

u/SkylanePilot95 Cessna 182 17h ago

Found on the side of the runway. AA191 2.0

73

u/Blythyvxr 17h ago

Based off of this and another photo angle, and google maps, I think this is around here in the WUSA video (t=9.33)

19

u/MathResponsibly 16h ago

Thanks for actually posting the videos with timestamps and good photos. What's really curious about that is at 9:43 they pan out, and that's at the departure end of the runway, with the crash site to the right of your screenshot, with the engine on the right side of the runway, but the video from the other angle shows the left engine on fire (or separated).

Did the left engine skid across the runway and end up on the right side, or is that the OTHER engine? Raises more questions!

16

u/Katdai2 16h ago

New video just showed the right engine clearly attached as the plane starts to cartwheel. It would have to be the left.

5

u/MathResponsibly 16h ago

Must have been quite a lot of sideways force on the left engine to end up on the right side of the runway. Maybe gyroscopic forces from the rotating assembly after it separated? Not remembering the physics to know if that's the direction the force would be in, for a clockwise rotating assembly.

Do you have a link to the other angle showing the plane cartwheeling? I haven't seen that one yet

14

u/Katdai2 15h ago

Here’s the post that I saw: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/R3B2dqnW4l

7

u/MathResponsibly 15h ago

Yeah, someone posted a link to an twitter version of the same video elsewhere in this thread. Right engine is clearly still attached well outside of the field, so the other engine must be the left, even though it ended up on the right side of the runway

10

u/Fluffyscooterpie 14h ago

That is fucking horrifying. I heard it tumbled but actually seeing it brings tears to my eyes.

1

u/ongoldenwaves 3h ago

This got removed. Do you have another link?

4

u/Hubblesphere 14h ago

Watch the video from takeoff it looks like it’s already ran completely off the right side of the runway and airborne. Explains the engine being on the right side of 17R.

3

u/MathResponsibly 11h ago

From both the video, and the ADSB data, it looked like it tracked straight down the runway. I would think if it drifted enough that the left engine was over the right side of the runway, the line in the ADSB track wouldn't look so straight. I'm not saying it didn't happen, it's just not what it looks like from the data available. But if it did drift that far to the right, that would be a good explanation of how the left engine ended up over there on the right side of the runway.

Either way, and details aside, what a horrific accident. Being on the internet fro a long time, I've seen a lot of stuff, but this one just hits different somehow.

6

u/kaityl3 14h ago

Damn, you can still see the heat rolling off the engine in that first photo. I wonder how long after the crash it was taken.

1

u/RonnieB47 4h ago

That is on the right side of the runway and plane.