UPS MD11 crash on take-off in Kentucky

[QF WP]

I presume they were dealing with the problems and tried to take the aircraft up (beyond V1, more likely at/after rotation). Does appear that the engine was already on fire and the plane gained no lift. Appears nose was up but no lift. They appear to have lost (parts of/most of) an engine that ended up in the grass verge nearing the end of 17R.

 

[Mwenenzi]

avherald The Aviation Herald

According to ADS-B data the aircraft achieved 185 knots over ground near the aiming markers runway 35L still on the runway centerline but never became airborne.

According to pictorial evidence engine #1 (left hand engine, CF6) separated the airframe during rotation for takeoff, the departure of that engine may also have failed the center engine #2.

The FAA reported: "UPS Flight 2976 crashed around 5:15 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 4, after departing from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky. The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was headed to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. The FAA and NTSB will investigate."

Ground observers reported the aircraft had been delayed for about two hours for work on the left hand engine (engine #1), the engine #1 separated during the takeoff run, the center engine emitted streaks of flames, the aircraft impacted a UPS warehouse and ploughed through other facilities before coming to rest in a large plume of fire and smoke.

 

[RSD]

Heard a couple of interesting things about the fire response -
1) that airport is also an Air National Guard base so it had a full complement of ARFF on the civilian side + a full complement of ARFF on the ANG side that both responded off airport to the crash.
2) a lot of additional firefighting foam was responded from the various distilleries in the area

 

[Saab34]

Another view. Wasn’t really much in the way of ground clearance on the extended centreline to put her down. I guess that raises another question, should all airports have an extended clear way on runway heading? Most are now littered with industrial estates or shopping centres.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986227942884508007

 

[markis10]

avherald The Aviation Herald

The joy of taking as gospel Wikipedia type inputs. Video from the truck clearly showed it airborne and the NTSB reported it gained enough altitude to clear the airport perimeter fence.

guess that raises another question, should all airports have an extended clear way on runway heading? Most are now littered with industrial estates or shopping centres.

Commercial reality these days, airports are real estate developers with shopping centres that are kept apart by runways. The recent Air India incident is similar in that context, as is the king air accident at Essendon a few years back.

 

[RSD]

Another view. Wasn’t really much in the way of ground clearance on the extended centreline to put her down. I guess that raises another question, should all airports have an extended clear way on runway heading? Most are now littered with industrial estates or shopping centres.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986227942884508007

That is probably the clearest video yet from dashcams/CCTV etc. Looks like the first thing contacted was the wires then the roof of the UPS building.

 

[Rabs97]

Another view. Wasn’t really much in the way of ground clearance on the extended centreline to put her down. I guess that raises another question, should all airports have an extended clear way on runway heading? Most are now littered with industrial estates or shopping centres.

The public wouldn’t tolerate the massive tax increases to give the government the funds to buy out all that land in what is now prime real estate.

If you did a similar clearance area in Sydney north of 34L then you’d have to clear not just business and Industrial areas but also thousands of residents from Sydenham, St Peters and Marrickville.

 

[Rabs97]

The recent Air India incident is similar in that context, as is the king air accident at Essendon a few years back.

The Air India accident hit a hospital 2.5kms from the runway. If we applied the same clearance at Sydney 34L again that would mean clearing everything and everyone south of the Marrickville Metro Shopping Centre. Probably about 20,000 residents.

Unless we spend a few hundred billion relocating all airports 80kms away from major cities then the extremely small risk of an aircraft coming down on an urban area will just have to be worn.

 

[jb747]

I presume they were dealing with the problems .....

They would have done nothing about the fire, etc. The issue that has to be dealt with first is keeping the aircraft under control, and then hopefully projecting the flight path somewhere reasonable.

and tried to take the aircraft up (beyond V1, more likely at/after rotation). Does appear that the engine was already on fire and the plane gained no lift. Appears nose was up but no lift.

Once off the runway, the wing is producing lift, but also masses of induced drag. That's a product of the lift, and doesn't appear until after lift off. In the normal course of events, as long as you're making enough thrust to offset the total drag, you'll accelerate and fly away. But, with insufficient thrust you'll end up wanting more and more angle of attack to make that lift, and that, in turn, makes an increasing amount of drag. As soon as drag exceeds thrust you're in a bad way.

 

[RooFlyer]

Update from Juan Browne with initial NTSB briefing. In particular, airline saying no delay and no maintenance done immediately before departure, and NTSB saying the aircraft cleared the fence at the end of the runway. coughpit voice and data recorders have been retrieved.

 

[markis10]

Update from Juan Browne with initial NTSB briefing. In particular, airline saying no delay and no maintenance done immediately before departure, and NTSB saying the aircraft cleared the fence at the end of the runway. coughpit voice and data recorders have been retrieved.

I’ll add you tubers to my above comments about wiki’s often being wrong.

LOUISVILLE, KY
HNL
HONOLULU, HI
TUESDAY 04/11/2025
05:13PM EST
(2 hours 2 minutes late)

Clearly they seem happy to regurgitate the spin doctor stuff without looking at other sources that provide more factual insights.

 

[QF WP]

The dashcam view of the trucker in the yard:

 

[QF WP]

Another one from the road on the other side of the airport: