[Coreym07]

https://www.wdrb.com/news/ups-plane-...4f1bfedcd.html

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Video shows a UPS plane catching fire and exploding as it took off Tuesday evening from Louisville's airport.

Police and fire crews are responded just after 5 p.m. to a reported plane crash near the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. Video, which you can watch above, shows a plane attempting to take off southbound from the airport with a fire burning off the left wing. Shortly thereafter, it explodes.

A MetroSafe supervisor said the call was for a "reported explosion" in the area of Fern Valley Road and Grade Lane. Louisville Metro Police said there's an active scene with "fire and debris."

A shelter-in-place was issued just after 5:30 p.m. for everything within 5 miles of the airport "until further notice." The map below shows a 5-mile radius from the airport. An updated alert at 6:04 p.m. said the shelter in place had been expanded to include all areas north of the airport all the way to the Ohio River.

According to a statement from the FAA, UPS Flight 2976 crashed around 5:15 p.m. after departing from the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport en route to Honolulu.

"The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was headed to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. The FAA and NTSB will investigate," the statement continued. "The NTSB will lead the investigation and will provide all updates. This information is preliminary and subject to change.

[TheCruxofBag]

A large UPS cargo plane with three people aboard crashed and exploded Tuesday while taking off from an airport in Louisville, Kentucky, igniting a massive fire that left a thick plume of black smoke over the area. The plane crashed about 5:15 p.m. as it was departing for Honolulu from Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said in a press conference that he believes there are at least three fatalities in the plane crash. A further fatality was confirmed by the public information officer at Louisville International Airport. The three crew members and an unspecified number of people on the ground remain unaccounted for.

UPS’s largest package handling facility is in Louisville. The hub employs thousands of workers, has 300 daily flights and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.

Mayor Craig Greenberg told WLKY-TV that fuel on the plane was an “extreme reason for concern in so many different ways.”

The crashed aircraft was 34 years old. It began service with Thai Airways in 1991 but was transferred to UPS in 2006. UPS planned to phase out its fleet of MD-11s over the next decade.

[durt]

Catastrophic failure of the left engine?
Compressor stall?
Looks like it blew the nose cowl right off.

[William May]

I wonder how he even got to the point of trying to take off, without the tower controllers telling him there was an obvious fire problem. I wonder if another video will show when the fire started? Uncontained engine explosions are NEVER supposed to happen!

[MacAKM]

Engine #1 completely separated and is sitting off the runway ala AA191

[Mr.NoCredit]

Sucks for all the burnt packages to not reach their destination.

[rhinobullet003]

Originally Posted by MacAKM ↗

Engine #1 completely separated and is sitting off the runway ala AA191

This is the exact same thing that happened decades ago and why most commercial airlines stopped flying the tri-jets.

[yah]

One key question for investigators is why one engine appeared to have separated from the plane before the crash, a person briefed on the matter said, pointing to video images of airfield debris.
The cause and origin of the fire before the aircraft went down were also unknown.
U.S. air safety expert and pilot John Cox said investigators will need to look at why the plane with three engines failed to fly after one apparently caught fire.
“It’s too big a fire for a normal, typical-engine fire,” Cox said. “It’s much too big.”
“That airplane should have flown on two engines. So now we’ve got to look at what caused it not to fly,” he added.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/lou...ld-2025-11-04/

[kellyhound]

3 crew members dead and at least 4 on the ground, 2 from an auto parts store.

[yah]

I'm wondering which came first: the fire or the engine separating.