LOUISVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — The National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary findings on the Louisville UPS plane crash that resulted in the death of 14 people when the aircraft's left engine reportedly separated from the wing during rotation.
The report detailed that United Parcel Service flight 2976, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F bound for Honolulu, was destroyed after the left engine and pylon detached from the wing moments after the plane began its takeoff roll from runway 17R at around 5:15 p.m.
Airport surveillance video captured the dramatic sequence showing the left engine separating from the wing, igniting a fire that continued as the aircraft briefly climbed to about 30 feet above ground level before crashing into multiple buildings south of the airport.
"The airplane initially climbed but did not get higher than about 30 ft above ground level according to radio altitude data," the NTSB report stated.
The aircraft cleared the runway's blast fence but struck a UPS Supply Chain Solutions warehouse with its left main landing gear before impacting a storage yard, petroleum recycling facility, and additional buildings. The wreckage spread across around 3,000 feet and was largely consumed by fire, the report added.
NTSB investigators found evidence of "fatigue cracks" in the left pylon's aft mount, which connects the engine to the wing, the report read. The spherical bearing that helps secure this connection had fractured circumferentially, according to materials laboratory examination.
The accident bears similarities to the 1979 crash of American Airlines flight 191 in Chicago, where a DC-10's left engine also separated during takeoff, killing 273 people. The MD-11 was developed from the DC-10 design.
UPS grounded its entire MD-11 fleet on November 7 as a precautionary measure. The Federal Aviation Administration issued emergency directives prohibiting further flights of MD-11 and DC-10 aircraft until inspections and corrective actions are completed, according to the report.
The aircraft had accumulated 92,992 flight hours and 21,043 cycles at the time of the accident. Maintenance records showed required special detailed inspections of the pylon components had not been completed, though they were not yet due based on the aircraft's cycle count.
Both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were successfully recovered and analyzed. The investigation remains ongoing.
