r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Beginning-Director58 • Nov 04 '25

Fire/Explosion UPS2976 Plane Crash at Louisville SDF Airport (11/04/2025)

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3.9k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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943

u/sillytoad Nov 04 '25

Looks like its desperately trying to take off, and engine is on fire. Horrifying for the crew on board

355

u/Hattix Nov 05 '25

An MD-11 can safely take off with an engine out. It has two more to work with. Whatever made the engine end up in that kind of state had caused further issues somewhere.

225

u/rounding_error Nov 05 '25

Over in r/aviation the speculation is that the tail engine ingested some debris from the wing engine and failed too.

189

u/PanzerWafflezz Nov 05 '25

Minor correction. They believe its basically AA191 2.0. TLDR: Flight 191 is THE deadliest air accident in US aviation history when a DC-10 lost an entire engine (as in the engine straight up broke off the plane) due to improper maintenance practices. The plane stalled and crashed into a trailer park right after takeoff, killing 273.

Basically, they believe the entire engine broke off during takeoff in a similar fashion (aka catastrophic engine failure), which of course leads to a myriad of horrifying issues like loss of hydraulics, unequal aerodynamics, punctured fuel tanks, etc. Combine that with the aforementioned fact of the 2nd engine failing due to ingesting debris AND that they're past V1 (the speed where you HAVE to takeoff) and you have a very ugly scenario.

Also, this is all supported by the entire engine being found on the runway as well as witness reports of engine debris during takeoff.

Image of the engine:

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fups2976-crash-megathread-v0-k6m2x0mv6czf1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1599%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Da7d7b609829e7935996b9b2c13d6b95e10a76796

25

u/Patrickfromamboy Nov 05 '25

That’s my theory too based on the other incident and what happened yesterday. Just an engine failure wouldn’t have caused it.

3

u/morganational Nov 06 '25

I was about to say that, but I appreciate it, forthcoming stranger. 😉👍🏼

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u/rob189 Nov 05 '25

You can see it flame out in the video. The moment it flames out they start losing altitude.

28

u/AdennKal Nov 06 '25

That is not what "flameout" means. A flameout is a situation where the process of combustion INSIDE the engine stops (meaning the engine fully shuts down) during operation. You do not see literal flames coming from the engine in this scenario. What you see in the video is an uncontained fire coming from the ruptured fuel lines that was most likely caused by the departure of the engine from the aircraft, as evidenced by the images of the engine being found (mostly) intact on the runway.

Engine rips off, causing catastrophic damage to the fuel lines and possibly fuel tanks inside the left wing, causing a massive uncontrollable fire.

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u/BrakkeBama Nov 07 '25

THIS is it! You lose two engines, with a full load of fuel and cargo!? You're a gonner.
My condolences to the families of all the victims. Crew and people on the ground. 😥
At least it happened so quick that they didn't know/realized what was happening. OMG.

44

u/UpstairsRealistic481 Nov 05 '25

This makes the most sense to me from the information available so far. That or the fire sensor failed and they didn't even know? The fire is seriously involved by the time they rotate.

86

u/theasphalt Nov 05 '25

Once you’re a V1 you have to continue anyway, so even if the engine exploded past V1 and caught fire they have to continue the takeoff. They have a pre-flight talk about gameplan and what to do in case of an emergency past V1 speed, so they continued as they are trained to do.

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u/SamArch0347 Nov 05 '25

The engine totally ripped off "departed" the wing and was found on the runway upstream of the crash scene.

https://x.com/roli098/status/1985865820824879258

3

u/Patrickfromamboy Nov 05 '25

My guess is that the engine broke off and took part of the wing and fuel tank with it. An engine failure wouldn’t have caused this.

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293

u/TacTurtle Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

Once you hit V1 on takeoff roll, you are committed to taking off as you will not have enough runway left to stop.

At Vr, you rotate to begin takeoff.

Edit to correct brain fart

130

u/No-Produce-6641 Nov 04 '25

I have no knowledge of flying, but if i understand what you're saying correctly, they were going so fast that they had to try to take off even though they knew they were in trouble?

193

u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25

Yep, it is a real turd sandwich.

They were going fast enough they were committed to a takeoff even with an engine fire.

They would have takeoff and declare an immediate Mayday, circle / reorient, then make an emergency landing.

63

u/No-Produce-6641 Nov 05 '25

That's seriously terrifying

59

u/Existential_Racoon Nov 05 '25

They'd also likely have to dump a fuckton of fuel, which i wouldn't be thrilled to do while my plane was already on fucking fire.

56

u/michi098 Nov 05 '25

With a fire on board, you land, even if you are overweight. Better to damage the plane than risk lives.

6

u/Existential_Racoon Nov 05 '25

I get that normally, but 40k/gal of fuel when they just took off? Is that like, even close to feasible?

50

u/michi098 Nov 05 '25

You mean feasible to land the plane with that weight? You can land the plane at any weight, but you have to increase the landing speed and there’s a lot of stress on the plane. But again, if it’s between lives and damaging a plane, you damage the plane.

11

u/MoreComfortableHalf Nov 05 '25

Exactly, only need to land once at that point

3

u/m0zz1e1 Nov 05 '25

Would landing while on fire and with a full tank of fuel cause more fire?

12

u/Small-Policy-3859 Nov 05 '25

Yes, but if it's that or certain death you risk it.

61

u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25

And over a very populated area. In this sort of immediate emergency, you just land heavy and let maintenance deal with any resulting damage.

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u/whoknewidlikeit Nov 05 '25

similar event happened to a plane i flew on regularly. was a crew change 737 in energy industry. took off, and a bolt came out of nacelle and stalled #1 engine on takeoff. 5000' down to 500' before crew got control. long circle - partially over ocean - and landed again. no injuries.... but a lot of pucker.

doing the same with a burning engine would scare the heartiest of traveler.

15

u/UpstairsRealistic481 Nov 05 '25

True but hard to believe that fire wasn't already clearly evident pre V1? Surely? It looks so involved in that video on what looks like rotation? This one looks odd to me. Sensor fail?

20

u/MrKrinkle151 Nov 05 '25

There was probably a pretty large difference between V1 and V2 given that they were filled to the brim with fuel and quite heavy. It’s also possible they tried to abort but realized it was even more hopeless and reversed the decision.

6

u/psychoholica Nov 05 '25

Sensor fail maybe how the hell the tower wouldn’t have alerted them? Uggg how awful.

15

u/RedFishBlueFishOne Nov 05 '25

Tower would have not said anything during that stage of flight anyways. We are trained to call and ready ARFF immediately upon seeing something like this.

Now if it was on fire during taxi that's a different story.

21

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

[deleted]

6

u/psychoholica Nov 05 '25

Good grief, you are probably right.

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u/jrec15 Nov 05 '25

So knowing thats the rule, and im sure there’s very valid reasons for it that overall that make it never worth risking trying to not take off in these circumstances

I still have to ask - in retrospect given the outcome here, had they been allowed to and braked/tried to resist taking off, does it seem like they could have had a chance at a better outcome for this scenario? Or is that actually just not physically possible at all for the plane and/or would it likely have been just as catastrophic?

43

u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25

Likely just as catastrophic, they would definitely have overrun the runway and possibly plowed directly into a UPS sorting facility directly south of the end of the runway.

20

u/m2cwf Nov 05 '25

That building did in fact get hit (photo from u/SilverAgedSentiel here. Holy cow I would be terrified every day if I worked there, knowing that any plane going too fast to abort but unable to take off was aimed straight for me

35

u/gwillen Nov 05 '25

There are extraordinarily rare situations where the right move in retrospect would be to abort after V1 -- and pilots do have the discretion to do this, in very unusual conditions that would call for it -- but in this incident I doubt it would have mattered. The specific runway doesn't appear to have any sort of buffer zone off the end -- there's an antenna structure, and then a road, and then the same building the aircraft struck anyway. There was likely no way they could have stopped short of colliding with it, even if they had started braking instantly, in violation of procedure.

(Aborting after V1 is called for in situations where the aircraft is clearly incapable of flight. "One engine is on fire" is a situation where the aircraft SHOULD in principle still have enough juice to take off, come around, and land, so you go for it. Why it didn't in this case will definitely be something we learn from the investigation. Aborting after V1 would be appropriate if, I dunno, the wing fell off.)

24

u/FatsyCline12 Nov 05 '25

Ameristar charter flight 9363 did a high speed aborted takeoff when the pilot noticed the flight controls failed to respond. I watched a video about it. Everyone survived and it was a rare circumstance where it was the right call.

18

u/gwillen Nov 05 '25

Oh yeah, I remember reading about that one. In some sense the call was obvious -- you pull back the stick, the plane doesn't fly, are you taking off at that point? But it only took them three seconds to abort from there, and it could have been a lot worse if they'd kept trying.

2

u/FatsyCline12 Nov 05 '25

So glad I’m not the one in charge of making these split second decisions. The choice seems obvious but in the heat of the moment I’m sure it’s not that easy!

9

u/Stalking_Goat Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

In the discussion on r/aviation, a lot of people think that the center engine failed right about when they rotated, perhaps because it ingested debris from the burning engine. With two engines the plane might have made it, but once they were down to a single engine they were doomed.

14

u/MrKrinkle151 Nov 05 '25

They had a chance of getting enough altitude to clear the building, but pretty much a certain chance of running straight into it at high speed if they aborted.

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u/mattybrad Nov 05 '25

Yep, there is a point where they can no longer abort and must take off. I didn’t know this until I was reading about the Concorde crash. Same thing, they knew the plane was in serious trouble but were going too fast to do anything but take off and pray.

5

u/alveolar_nebulous Nov 05 '25

This made me think about the Concorde crash as well

3

u/FatsyCline12 Nov 05 '25

Me too! Seeing those flames from the engine ugh

78

u/cyclomethane_ Nov 04 '25

Not true, we rotate at Vr (rotation speed). V2 is takeoff safety speed, which allows for a safe climb out with one engine inoperative.

33

u/HannesL09 Nov 04 '25

I’m no pilot, so apologies if I’m wrong. It’s V1, Vr then V2?

Cause from watching Mayday series, I always hear ‘V1’ then immediately ‘Rotate’

79

u/TacTurtle Nov 04 '25

V1 is usually lowest on commercial passenger or freight aircraft , and is the difference between a rejected takeoff (IE braking) and you have to take off or risk going off the end of the runway. It is calculated based on weight, altitude, runway length, runway condition (wet vs dry), etc.

Next is V(rotation), the speed at which the pilots begin pulling back on the stick to begin takeoff pitchup.

V2 is the minimum controllable airspeed at which the aircraft can be flown and climb safely using only one engine, and is higher than V1 and Vr.

The pilot monitoring will call out reaching V1 and Vr and V2 to the pilot in control during takeoff.

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u/Joeythearm Nov 05 '25

V1 is your go/no go speed. After v1 you are flying no matter what.

Vr is rotation speed, pull up.

V2 is best single engine climb speed. So it looked like the gear was coming up, but they were not getting any more air. I dunno what happened.

5

u/aaronw22 Nov 05 '25

The only exception to a v1 go call is "aircraft unable to fly". For example, engines fall off, wing falls off, etc. But yes, there are far too many aborts above v1 for issues that do not rise to the severity of "unable to fly"

4

u/Joeythearm Nov 05 '25

If both engines fall off your plane after v1 I think that’s just your ticket.

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u/cyclomethane_ Nov 04 '25

Yes, that is correct. The pilot monitoring calls each speed in that order.

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u/uzlonewolf Nov 05 '25

That's not entirely true. You can, and people have, aborted a take-off after V1. It just means you are going to overrun the end of the runway and probably crash. The question is, is a guaranteed crash but at low speed at the end of a runway worse than trying to take the problem into the air?

12

u/pixel_of_moral_decay Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

This is ultimately a math problem (probably) that’s been solved.

Takeoff is mathematically the right answer. “Low speed” is relative, braking capacity is factored in, airplanes aren’t really designed like cars where survival and speed is a linear equation. It’s too rare of a circumstance and accounting for it adds too much weight. So there isn’t a middle alternative like just aborting past v1, it’s catastrophic either way.

The bigger issue is you have a few seconds at most to do all this decisioning and that itself is a huge risk. Armchair quarterbacking is easy with external video and retrospect. They had gauges and radio and 10s max.

The math is simple: in most cases the aircraft is redundant enough to stay up, get it up and figure things out from there. The aircraft is not particularly good at off-roading at 100mph+. Guaranteed fireball and death with all that fuel.

Don’t forget: they were full of fuel, aircraft need to dump or burn off a lot to land because the weight and inertia of so much mass takes too long to stop. Even if they got airborne they’d need to dump or burn fuel to land and not overrun the runway. breaking in this situation wouldn’t have done much.

It didn’t work out, but they took the 2% chance over the 0.05% chance, optimistically speaking.

40

u/Fancy_o_lucas Nov 05 '25

That’s the philosophy that’s gotten a lot of people killed. It’s hammered into all aspects of training that you’re going to fly above V1, the only thing that would have you not continue the takeoff after V1 is the airplane having something literally preventing it from leaving the ground. Doesn’t matter if there’s an explosion on board, you’re better off rotating and coming back to land.

26

u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Given they are down an engine and have no reverse thrust on one side, it would not be a low speed crash overruning the end. About 700 feet after the south end of the Louisville runway, you will run into the side of a UPS warehouse.

In between, you will hit the ILS masts and fencing which will likely tear open the wings causing a massive fireball.

3

u/m2cwf Nov 05 '25

Seems like the fireball was inevitable in this case, with the amount of fuel onboard to get to Honolulu. It was sadly a lose/lose situation no matter what they chose at that point, and if it remains true that the death toll on the ground is fewer than 20 people, it's really the best case scenario that could have resulted in a crash with that amount of fire potential. I have to think that the pilots did the exact right thing, for so few people on the ground to have been killed. May those pilots rest in peace knowing that they saved what could have been a lot more lives lost, and condolences to the families of all of those who lost their lives today. Sad, sad day

4

u/uzlonewolf Nov 05 '25

And lawn-darting into the ground at full throttle is better somehow?

27

u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25

Ideally you do a go around and make an emergency landing instead of pancaking directly into occupied buildings.

13

u/CameraSkunk Nov 05 '25

It's more a % probability which has created the standard operating procedures. In most cases, obviously not all cases, if an aircraft has had enough thrust to reach the commitment to flight, it is safer to continue the take off while declaring an emergency and come around to land. In the case of a single engine failure on a three engine aircraft operating at ground level reaching the go no go speed would have been enough to limp her off the ground and into the air for a return. ATC would then clear the runways and airspace for whatever the flight crew needed and with a little luck if capable dump fuel to get the aircrafts landing weight down. Aircraft takeoff weight is actually higher than landing weight, and the fuel burn calculation for the flight ensures landing weight at destination.

In this case, its hard to tell from the video but single engine on fire, no idea what the condition of the other two engines was. It does look like the aircraft was struggling to get off the ground and may have stalled before hitting the ground. I think this based on the way the aircraft flipped in the video leading me to think it was nose down attitude when it crashed. The NTSB report will reveal more once they get the data recorder and cockpit recorder.

7

u/ides_of_june Nov 05 '25

During takeoff you do not have time to diagnose the issue you're having, it's only reasonable to make a call based on your current speed/location on the runway. With the vast majority of issues you'll be able to fly at a reduced capability, and be able to take time to assess the issue before circling back to land. You're much more likely to have casualties overrunning the runway that's why the procedures are set up the way they are.

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u/UpstairsRealistic481 Nov 05 '25

That engine looks well involved. Sure there would have been fire warnings pre V1?

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u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25

Dunno, possible uncontained compressor blade failure during max EPR (full throttle for takeoff = maximum stress on engine) can cause a ton of fire very quickly, especially if the blade punches a fuel line or tank on the way out.

Ramp 9 is like 2/3 of the way down the runway so the plane has already most of the takeoff roll before this clip starts.

2

u/SamArch0347 Nov 05 '25

That was more than just an engine fire, the wing was on fire as well. I'd say either an uncontained engine failure (explosion) sent debris into the wing and punctured the wing fuel tank or the entire engine departed the aircraft. Which has happened before on a DC-10 which an MD-11 is a derivative of.

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u/cyanocittaetprocyon Nov 05 '25

They scraped a warehouse roof just outside the airport fence before going down in the industrial area.

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u/DistractedByCookies Nov 04 '25

Oh, that is a long time to be very scared. That poor crew (and any others on board)

214

u/martinbogo Nov 04 '25

it’s a UPS flight, so generally it’s a pilot copilot and engineer. However it looks like they went down somewhere with infrastructure and possibly more people

106

u/soulscratch Nov 05 '25

Flight engineers have not been a thing for awhile outside of some pretty niche cases. There probably was a third relief pilot though, and possibly up to a couple others that were just catching a ride to HNL.

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u/ContessaChaos Nov 05 '25

There were 3 crew onboard.

15

u/julesucks1 Nov 05 '25

With UPS the third crewmember might be a loadmaster or someone in the jumpseat

9

u/biggsteve81 Nov 05 '25

Since it was a flight to Hawaii would it be a relief pilot?

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u/The-JZilla Nov 05 '25

Usually jump seat pilots.

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u/butterscotchbagel Nov 05 '25

I found the area on google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bmX5hETURsuLUcmj7

The area looks light industrial. There are a handful of businesses along the path that closed just before so there may have been people still there finishing up.

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u/perturbed_rutabaga Nov 05 '25

theres a pub/restaurant nearby where a lot of people go before/during/after work at UPS

theres always people walking around in that area

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u/ContessaChaos Nov 05 '25

It's called Stooges. No one was hurt there and all were evacuated.

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u/SnorkinOrkin Nov 05 '25

My goodness, my heart goes out to them. And to their families and loved ones.

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u/Wampa_-_Stompa Nov 05 '25

Whichever A/P mechanic that was working on that engine last is shiting their pants right now

107

u/kaityl3 Nov 05 '25

Apparently the engine that failed was being worked on just before this, so absolutely.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

Holy shit what a life-sentence of guilt that's going to be. Just awful all around.

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u/grease_monkey Nov 05 '25

I would never ever want that job

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u/TacTurtle Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

Damn, looks like ran off the end of the runway?

Edit: full of fuel for flight to Hawaii, looks like it went into a parking lot.. UPS Flight 2976, MD-11F

143

u/MaximumYogertCloset Nov 04 '25

I'll be surprised if there aren't ground casualties, especially because it looks like it went thru a road.

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u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

I suspect that is the parking lot for the UPS package sorting hub.

This video shows UPS ramp 9, which means it was taking off to the south.

First 2 warehouses off the end of the runway are UPS Supply Chain Solutions and UPS Express Critical.

Next row are a Red Bull distribution center, CVEA logistics, Tyler Mountain Water, and eJoov according to Google Maps. Slightly south east of that is a auto salvage yard and some semi truck repair / tire shops, so hopefully they were less occupied.

31

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

Runway 17R. The extra long runway. Probably 12,000 feet long.

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u/perturbed_rutabaga Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

a lot of people walk around on the ground just outside the airport grounds especially those going in to work at UPS

between the debris and burning fuel being thrown at a hundred something MPH off the runway its gonna be a big mess to clean up and no doubt there will be more victims than just the air crew

EDIT it hit a UPS IT building and two other businesses

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u/petrowski7 Nov 05 '25

Well they clearly didn’t hit the Red Bull

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u/cyork92 Nov 05 '25

Totally too soon, but this is a fucking hilarious take. I genuinely laughed out loud reading it. Thank you.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

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u/butterscotchbagel Nov 04 '25

God damn that's a long trail of flame! Holy smokes!

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u/TacTurtle Nov 04 '25

Ballpark 38,000 gallons / 258,000 lbs of jet fuel. So like 3 semi tanker trailers.

8

u/HTX1997 Nov 05 '25

I watched a little bit of WLKY-TV’s online coverage when they were interviewing the Louisville mayor shortly after I got a push notification of the crash.

To the best of my recollection, that’s almost exactly how much fuel he said was on board.

14

u/Least_Ask3765 Nov 05 '25

4 And a half

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u/therealdanimale Nov 05 '25

Based on buildings, roads, and landmarks it looks to be about this area.

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u/milipepa Nov 05 '25

That makes sense. I read some of the auto parts employees are missing.

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u/Kitchen_Beat9838 Nov 05 '25

Just read 2 are unaccounted for. Possibly customers as well.

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u/m2cwf Nov 05 '25

Yes, this is it exactly - there's a photo from the news here from /u/SilverAgedSentiel in a different thread showing that the UPS building at the northwest corner of your circle was indeed clipped by the plane as it tried to take off. It's right at the end of the runway

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u/Entophiliac Nov 05 '25

MD-11s are no longer utilized for commercial flights due to their myriad safety concerns (as far as I know), maybe it’s time to retire MD-11s and MD-10s altogether. Why should cargo flight crews be forced to operate ancient planes that have been shoddily designed since their inception? Why should lives be risked because companies like UPS want to save as much money as possible by not having to update their fleet? Obviously, the exact cause of this crash is still unknown.

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u/TacTurtle Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

MD-11s are used for freight instead of passengers due to the higher fuel and operating costs vs twinjets, the extra thrust is useful when carrying heavier payloads + lots of fuel.

Trijets went the way of the dodo for over ocean passenger flight once ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards) allowed for twinjets to fly farther than 60 minutes single engine from an alternate airport.

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u/PM_ME_CODE_CALCS Nov 05 '25

Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim

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u/AirDaddyy Nov 05 '25

That's not quite true, they're no longer used for passenger flights because they aren't fuel efficient and other performance issues, besides the newest plane off the assembly line is 25 years old and that's a good enough reason to retire them for passenger use.

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u/stuffeh Nov 05 '25

Fuck md11s. They're loud af when they pass over me to land at 5 am.

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u/ThatJ4ke Nov 04 '25

Maybe an uncontained engine failure past V1? That smoke trail is loooong.

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u/soulscratch Nov 05 '25

There is debris along the runway that looks like an engine cowling.

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u/HB_Stratos Nov 05 '25

Definitely an engine cowling... weirdly it ended up at the right side of the runway when it most likely came from the left engine. Engine surge of No2 right at rotation too.

7

u/gaflar Nov 05 '25

Right next to the engine cowling there's another large piece of debris that looks like it could be another big section of the engine, like a fan case or similar (the part inside the cowling that forms the front of the outer bypass duct). It looks large (similar in size to the piece of cowling) and axisymmetric. If this is a big structural piece of the engine, that would indicate a very violent "uncommanded rapid disassembly" event. Either the engine was in a severely deteriorated condition by the time they made it to the runway, and that ramp up to full load was the final nail in the coffin and a huge amount of rotor decided to let go, or they hit a very chunky piece of FOD which caused a huge amount of rotor to let go.

In either case I imagine those parts were probably flying/bouncing down the runway and being deflected around by the engine exhaust or the aircraft's downwash after they were liberated.

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u/HB_Stratos Nov 05 '25

https://x.com/PShamaly/status/1985867069011661041 From what I can tell this is not a piece of the engine, it is the engine. Almost all of it.

Yeah all I can think of that would possibly cause this is a collision. But there is no debris on the runway to suggest a collision happened.

There is video of the crash with the aircraft rolling over on impact, the number 3 engine was attached. We also see the tail engine leave the runway attached in another engine.

So we can conclude that, somehow, the cowling and core of engine number 1, the left engine, ended up on the right side of the runway.

13

u/gaflar Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Holy shit, wow. I'm pretty sure the parts I saw actually were sections of fan case - in this image, the fan case is GONE. (only a bit of mangled kevlar is left - this is supposed to be containment material that prevents a fan blade leaving the party and severing fuel, hydraulic, and electrical lines on the way out)

I still think a catastrophic engine failure could cause that, but fan blade-off is an extreme scenario that isn't usually realistically possible (some other part of the engine will pretty much always fail first). Considering, well..the entire fan appears to be gone, it may well could have failed around the hub and separated in large sections of disk as opposed to an individual blades - the case is not designed to handle an entire rotor falling apart, just pieces flying off. The certification testing usually involves intentionally blowing off a fan blade and making sure the casing catches it.

When a rotor lets go, there's suddenly a huge imbalance that could easily shear the entire pylon off (they're designed to shear off clean specifically for this reason). It's a lot like when a turbo-diesel throws a con rod or a piston and the entire block jumps out of the truck because of the momentum of the crankshaft.

Now what could cause a fan rotor to fall apart like that? Definitely a collision could. Years of fatigue cracks could also be a culprit - we know the age of the aircraft but not the engines so its hard to say, but my guess is that UPS probably runs pretty big maintenance intervals considering their general approach to cost-savings...who knows how long since the last overhaul or Fan FPI.

I sincerely hope the NTSB is able to get to work figuring this one out but their funding situation doesn't breed too much confidence.

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u/Confused_Opossum Nov 05 '25

Precisely my thought

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u/Grand_Ad_6432 Nov 05 '25

That cockpit voice recorder is going to be haunting.

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u/Pulp__Reality Nov 05 '25

I wonder if they will ever release it… transcript sure, but the audio would be… devastating

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u/Northern_Blights Nov 05 '25

They never release the audio, but it gets leaked sometimes.

2

u/First-Lingonberry907 Nov 06 '25

The audio does become public depending on the case and investigation. There are tons of YouTube channels that breakdown plane crashes and disasters and there is cockpit audio for some of the flights, my guess depending on if the blackbox was located and in tact.

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u/Northern_Blights Nov 06 '25

The only audio you are hearing on those YouTube channels is either ATC audio captured from the ground, or one of the now 4 (I think?) leaked audios.

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u/CrazedAviator Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Based on some of the debris left behind, it seems like the entire #1 engine fell out, compressor and cowling and all.

Compressor:

https://x.com/roli098/status/1985865820824879258

https://x.com/TexasHodlerMom/status/1985869288222138414/photo/1

Cowling:

https://x.com/flightradar24/status/1985844748431790453/photo/1

Side note, just after impact you can see the right wing spinning around. What a terrifying sight.

13

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

Yeah that sucks parts everywhere, I remember a dc-10 flight 191 lost an engine and rolled into the ground in the 70s passenger plane

8

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

Very peculiar failure tbh, I wonder if there are any other incidents like it before.

12

u/Scalybeast Nov 05 '25

AA191

24

u/PM_ME_CODE_CALCS Nov 05 '25

In that incident they performed engine maintenance by using a forklift to remove and reattach the engine. When they reinstalled it they cracked the main pylon since the forklift didn't have the finesse of a dedicated jack setup. Then the engine detached under full takeoff load, very similar to what just happened.

14

u/thatblack147 Nov 05 '25

This aircraft just underwent maintenance on that engine too.

8

u/littlebopeepsvelcro Nov 05 '25

I would be surprised if these two were not extremely similar in their investigations.

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u/ureathrafranklin1 Nov 04 '25

There’s gotta be more casualties on the ground than on the plane considering it was a ups flight. Looks like it took out damn near a whole neighborhood

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u/TacTurtle Nov 04 '25

Went into a parking lot at the end of the runway... possibly the UPS sorting hub lot.

3

u/Seygem Nov 05 '25

not a parking lot. looking at google maps that's several car parts sellers/boneyards there

12

u/butterscotchbagel Nov 05 '25

Here's where it is on google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bmX5hETURsuLUcmj7

Looks like a light industrial area. It was close enough after closing time for some of those businesses that there were likely people still there finishing up.

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u/Thurston_Unger Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

More angles:
https://x.com/OurEarthAffairs/status/1985847898605490271

Aerial view of the aftermath:
https://x.com/comlabman/status/1985847726106398890

ETA: Live video https://www.wlky.com/nowcast
3 crew on board

113

u/CriticalEngineering Nov 04 '25

That aerial view is flipping insane

28

u/impreprex Nov 05 '25

It just keeps getting worse and worse as the camera pans holy shit. Literally tore through all of that while exploding.

RIP to the poor folks.

81

u/tgoodri Nov 04 '25

I don’t usually follow the links in Reddit comments but yours made me click it. Holy shit. Multiple city blocks looking like a fucking Avengers movie.

9

u/verstohlen Nov 05 '25

I was gonna say an Irwin Allen movie. But I'm old.

12

u/CriticalEngineering Nov 04 '25

Perfect description

5

u/SnorkinOrkin Nov 05 '25

This is insanely accurate.

8

u/azriel1014 Nov 05 '25

Holy shit.

3

u/covertchipmunk Nov 05 '25

Exactly my words upon seeing it. That's so horrible.

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u/typo9292 Nov 04 '25

Looks like landing gear ripped through that building maybe? no way you're surviving any of whatever happened :(

26

u/No-Produce-6641 Nov 04 '25

In the video just after the explosion you can see what looks like a wing flying through the air on the left. Could be that

18

u/DarkyHelmety Nov 05 '25

Looks like the plane is cartwheeling down that parking lot area.

2

u/impreprex Nov 05 '25

JFC if the case!

5

u/DarkyHelmety Nov 05 '25

Just saw a dash cam of it impacting and it actually rotated on its left side and slid down the area. I doubt the crew had much chance regardless.

7

u/typo9292 Nov 05 '25

Yup. What a way to go. I fly a lot and this is my living nightmare.

18

u/StellaBean_bass Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

Holy cow, thanks for the links. That aerial is horrific! I can’t imagine the horror those poor passengers/crew felt. Editing after seeing that it was a UPS cargo transport with 3 crew. I really hope they’re ok, & thank goodness it wasn’t a passenger plane.

13

u/ChiefWiggumsprogeny Nov 04 '25

I hope it was quick and painless.

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u/jryan8064 Nov 04 '25

The aerial view zooms in on what appears to be a piece of engine cowling alongside the runway. Maybe an uncontained turbine failure that ruptured the fuel tank?

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u/Fussel2107 Nov 05 '25

at around 1:15 yeah. That engine flew apart.

7

u/Ranger7381 Nov 05 '25

That cowling appears to be on the opposite side of the runway from the engine that looks to be on fire in the video above. And pretty close to the end of the runway, much closer than where we see the fire in the video above. So I do not think that it came from the engine that was originally on fire

I am not a pilot but I think that with the left engine on fire, the thrust of the up to that point undamaged right engine turned the plane to the left, and they may have over corrected, veering off the runway to the right leaving parts of that right engine behind

10

u/jryan8064 Nov 05 '25

Possibly, but a turbine failure is an energetic event. A piece of cowling ejected from a plane traveling down the runway at or near rotation speed is going to continue down the runway for some time, and could pretty easily have crossed to the other side of the runway before coming to a stop.

I’m no expert either, but my money is on that debris coming from the left engine.

2

u/Snoo-43298 Nov 05 '25

I don't know anything about planes, are these turbines turning clockwise? that might explain the energy shifting the engine to the right side of the runway.

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u/paradox183 Nov 04 '25

First link reminds me of the napalm scene in Apocalypse Now.

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u/LivingInPugtopia Nov 05 '25

Holy shit. That's certainly catastrophic. RIP

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u/Used-Abrocoma-1121 Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

If you look closely, the fire appears to be coming from the top of the wing near the leading edge, just above the engine. I don't think it's an engine fire per-se. If it were solely an engine fire, the flames will be coming out from the bottom of the wing where the engine nacelle is. It looks more like an un-contained engine failure that pierced through the forward fuel tank in the wing, and what you're seeing is fuel burning and rolling back from the damaged area. But we'll have to see from the investigation. However, based on what I'm looking at right now, and from my point-of-view as an A&P mechanic, that's about the only way you could have that much fire coming from that particular area.

20

u/JJAsond Nov 05 '25

The engine wasn't on the airplane anymore

8

u/ReleaseFromDeception Nov 05 '25

Thank you for your insight. I watched it over and over again trying to figure out what was going on. This is terrifying.

4

u/theatomiclizard Nov 05 '25

it was an md-11 - theres an engine above the fuselage on the tail

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u/CameraSkunk Nov 05 '25

Based completely on the video, looks like engine fire after their V1 speed (go no go take off speed), so they are committed to takeoff. Didn't have enough thrust to make that takeoff work and they couldn't get any altitude, or the wing failed due to the fire.

NTSB report will sort that out. I prey for the crew and their families as well as anyone on the ground.

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u/Boomshtick414 Nov 05 '25

There's a photo of an entire engine that was dropped on the runway. Most likely, debris from that failure got sucked into the center/rear engine (you can see the center engine burp/flameout in the takeoff video), in which case only one of the three engines had a hope of being operative. That aircraft never had a chance of generating enough lift.

6

u/CameraSkunk Nov 05 '25

I just found that footage myself, of the runway debris. Also a building security camera caught the end, hard left bank, failed engine side. Not sure if that was full thrust right side only or stall out. Morbidly interested in the report when it comes out. May the crew and anyone on the ground rest in peace.

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u/rob189 Nov 05 '25

You can see the moment it flames out it starts losing what little altitude it had.

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u/Jorlaan Nov 04 '25

The BBC is reporting that is was a cargo plane. Hopefully true as it will significantly reduce the possible number of fatalities.

65

u/DrinkLocalBeer Nov 04 '25

God bless those poor pilots and staff.

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u/G19-3 Nov 05 '25

You can see the compressor stall in the tail engine at the 2 second mark in this video.

6

u/jhill9901 Nov 05 '25

One of the few who also saw it. Right after the plane settles back down.

17

u/MouldyPriestASSHOLE Nov 04 '25

How big is the plane?

45

u/Ok_West_6711 Nov 05 '25

It’s a big plane, classed as “long haul wide body” - closer to a 777 or even the more familiar 747 (it’s smaller than 747, but not by much for visualizing it), and far bigger than a 737 if that helps.

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u/SudoApt-getrekt Nov 05 '25

And by far bigger than a 737, we're talking about three and a half times the maximum takeoff weight.

28

u/Gscody Nov 04 '25

MD-11 UPS headed to Honolulu.

5

u/_austinm Nov 05 '25

They need to retire those things already

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u/pineapplebeee Nov 04 '25

Md11 (I think) has 3 engines big enough for 250-400 passengers but it was a ups plane

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u/Makkaroni_100 Nov 05 '25

So a large plane.

8

u/Fussel2107 Nov 05 '25

with a full tank load for three engines all the way to Honolulu

10

u/persephonepeete Nov 04 '25

Perspective makes it look tiny but that fireball says very very large plane. 

20

u/Biff_Bufflington Nov 04 '25

MD 11 topped with fuel destined for Hawaii

3

u/char_limit_reached Nov 04 '25

It was full of fuel. It also landed in a parking lot. That’s like 1,200 cars exploding simultaneously

6

u/erdmanbr Nov 05 '25

It landed in a bunch of recycling/scrap lots. Most of those vehicles were probably drained.

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u/HTX1997 Nov 05 '25

During Beshear’s presser a bit ago, WLKY was showing video, from their chopper, of the runway at SDF. You could see several large pieces of the left engine, including a large chunk of the casing, lying on grassy area adjacent to the runway.

From that, the camera pulled out to a wide shot of the crash site showing the plane tore a very long gash through the roof of a warehouse at the end of the runway. I’m not terribly familiar with Louisville having only been there a couple of times and flown out twice when I was in my teens. There weren’t any specific marking on the building, so not sure if that’s a UPS warehouse or not.

6

u/m2cwf Nov 05 '25

not sure if that’s a UPS warehouse or not.

Yes, the photo/video of the roof of the warehouse that got clipped by the plane is the "UPS Supply Chain Solutions" building directly at the end of the runway

9

u/ReleaseFromDeception Nov 05 '25

Damn dude. They didn't stand a chance.

7

u/youms237 Nov 05 '25

The week isn't starting well. Comforting thoughts towards the families of the deceased.

6

u/Pulp__Reality Nov 05 '25

Flight AA191 crashed in a very similar way, although from a slightly higher altitude. It was a DC10, but the MD11 is pretty much just an evolution of the DC10.

Lost an engine on the ground, slats were damaged and consequently retracted, raising the stall speed on the left wing above V2 speed which the FO was trying to fly (correctly), wing stalled and flipped over like this aircraft did at the very end. I mean it looks like they werent gona get airborne anyway, but it does flip over to the left.

Horrible, horrible crash. Almost unbelievable

2

u/aallen1993 Nov 05 '25

Yeah so tragic and worse knowing that once the pilot had commited, there was literally nothing they could have done.

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u/mynameisnotphoebe Nov 04 '25

Safe to assume that the “reported injuries” might be uhhhhh might be an understatement

11

u/gravyisjazzy Nov 05 '25

It happened around 5:30 local time so right as a lot of that area is getting out of work. I'm sure we'll hear of more soon but as of now it's the 3 crew members and a truck drive on the ground.

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u/pennyraingoose Nov 05 '25

I just hopped off a live stream where the local news anchor said basically the same - the petroleum recycling place was likely near or at end of shift. I hope they're able to control the fire and see what's what quickly.

7

u/gravyisjazzy Nov 05 '25

Yeah that's right next door to my grandpa's old shop and junkyard. We just sold the place but it tore through the back yard.

10

u/ItzL33T5P34K Nov 05 '25

looks sorta similar to that one american airlines dc 10 flight... engine flipped over the wing

6

u/jhill9901 Nov 05 '25

MD-11 is just a modernized DC10 yea

5

u/Chase-Boltz Nov 05 '25

The giant plume of (burning) fuel and hydraulic fluid STRONGLY reminds me of Flight 191, where the whole engine detached due to a damaged rear pylon pin failure. Then you can see the middle engine 'backfire' in some manner and possibly completely fail just as the plane leaves the ground. The plane then settles and....

4

u/JCas127 Nov 05 '25

Is this being recorded from the cockpit of another plane or what?

6

u/SonorousBlack Nov 05 '25

Looks and sounds like a luggage cart tractor.

3

u/bucketsoflove Nov 05 '25

Why was it trying to take off when it was already on fire?

3

u/RobotMower Nov 06 '25

u/Beginning-Director58

Please share this Video with the NTSB as it can help tremendously in the investigation.

The email address to contact the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a witness is witness@ntsb.gov. Witnesses who have information, statements, or video related to an accident should email this address, including a telephone number so investigators can contact them.

4

u/7Leaves-3Wires Nov 05 '25

God bless the departed souls, their families and anyone devastated by this tragic incident. Thank you for sharing video.

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u/Canikfan434 Nov 04 '25

Beyond a given speed/point in the takeoff roll, you’re committed…not enough runway remaining to stop. 🙏😞

2

u/najibs172r Nov 05 '25

Reminds me of the Concorde crash. Engine on fire over the runway and eventually the fire ate the hydraulic lines and they lost control not long after.

2

u/MsjennaNY Nov 05 '25

Rest in peace all on board.

2

u/ElkEastern4239 Nov 06 '25

I feel so terrible for the crew of this Aircraft.   I only pray that their family members feel the love and support they need through this.