Investigators trying to find what brought about Tuesday’s lethal UPS airplane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, might be reviewing dramatic video footage from the scene.
The footage seems to indicate the world of the left wing the place one of many airplane’s engines could be positioned on hearth because the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 raced down the runway towards catastrophe. Officers mentioned not less than 9 folks had been killed within the crash and the demise toll was anticipated to rise.
Moments later, because the airplane with three crew members on board appears to attempt to take off, some flames seem to shoot from the engine positioned within the tail of the airplane.
A picture seize of video footage distributed by the Related Press reveals flames showing to come back from the left wing of a UPS airplane earlier than it crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 4, 2025.
Person-generated content material by way of AP
Nonetheless photographs and aerial video footage seem to indicate the airplane’s left engine sitting simply off the runway, which means it separated from the airplane throughout the incident. It’s doable that particles from the separation was sucked into the tail engine.
Federal authorities investigating the crash are anticipated to prioritize securing the left engine in addition to finding the cockpit voice and information recorders from the wreckage as they work to find out what brought about the disaster.
With one engine gone and a second engine doubtlessly both broken or not functioning correctly, it’s unlikely the airplane — loaded down with gasoline and packages — may generate adequate raise to take off.
The MD-11 was designed to have the ability to take off with out one engine, however shedding two engines whereas approaching 200 mph and working out of runway to cease would have given the pilots a seemingly unattainable state of affairs to attempt to work via.
Additionally, having an engine fall off the airplane would alter the load and stability of the plane, seemingly making it more durable to keep up secure flight — assuming the wing itself wasn’t broken throughout the hearth and obvious engine separation.
The airplane would have been carrying as much as 20,000 packages and roughly 255,000 kilos of jet gasoline for its flight of eight and a half hours to Honolulu.
Firefighters are seen in aerial footage battling an enormous blaze after a airplane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 4, 2025.
WLKY-TV
The essential voice and information recorders, the so-called black containers, are positioned within the tail part of the MD-11 as a result of sometimes that’s essentially the most survivable part in a crash. As soon as recovered, they are going to be secured and rushed again to the Nationwide Transportation Security Board lab in Washington, D.C., for examination.
The black containers, which are literally shiny orange to make them simpler to identify, have a shell that’s manufactured from hardened titanium or stainless-steel with inner insulation to outlive temperatures as much as about 2,000 levels Fahrenheit for not less than one hour.
Jet gasoline burns between 800 levels and 1,200 levels, however the airplane got here down in an industrial park, and supplies there may have made the large blaze burn hotter. The hearth additionally burned for greater than an hour, placing the situation of the black containers in query. The NTSB has a very good monitor file of recovering information even from badly broken information and voice recorders.
The information recorder, if intact, ought to give investigators a way of how the 34-year-old transformed airliner was working within the moments main as much as the crash. The voice recorder ought to reveal what the pilots heard and mentioned throughout the doomed takeoff.
Kathryn Krupnik
contributed to this report.
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