The latest reporting on the UPS cargo plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, outlines a growing death toll, devastating injuries, and fresh technical details from the NTSB that suggest a left engine caught fire and detached during takeoff; local officials, medical teams, and UPS have issued statements while investigators recover a damaged black box and sift through footage and wreckage to determine what went wrong.
News From the UPS Cargo Plane Crash Keeps Getting Worse As It’s Revealed Engine Fell Off
The scene in Louisville is grim: authorities now say 12 people have died, including a child, and numerous others suffered injuries ranging from smoke inhalation to severe burns and shrapnel wounds. All three crewmembers aboard the cargo plane have been pronounced dead, and families and neighbors are coping with sudden loss and shock.
Federal investigators led by the National Transportation Safety Board released details indicating a fire started in the plane’s left wing during the takeoff roll, and the engine subsequently fell off the aircraft as it was lifting. That sequence of events is central to the probe and raises urgent questions about mechanical failure, maintenance, or other causes that must be explored.
A UPS cargo plane’s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off just before it crashed and exploded after takeoff from Louisville International Airport in Kentucky, a federal investigator said Wednesday, offering the first official details about a disaster that killed at least 11 people, including three on board.
There was a fire in the plane’s left wing and the engine “detached” during takeoff on Tuesday, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation.
Investigators will need to sort through maintenance logs, engine records, surveillance video, and recovered wreckage to form a timeline that fits the data. The black box has been recovered but shows heat damage; NTSB officials say the flight recorder should still yield usable information once examined at the laboratory in Washington.
“We feel comfortable, once we get these to our lab in D.C., that we will be able to get a good readout of the applicable data,” Inman said. “And that will be yet another point of information that will really help us understand what happened during this point of flight.”
Local leaders and first responders describe a chaotic, apocalyptic scene in neighborhoods near the airport, with debris, smoke, and ash falling across residential streets. Governor Andy Beshear offered public condolences, and other officials emphasized the need for full cooperation with federal investigators as recovery and emergency care continue.
UPS issued a short, solemn statement acknowledging the tragedy and expressing sorrow for the victims and their families, stressing the company’s commitment to safety in Louisville and beyond. Company spokespeople joined local authorities to support response efforts and offered assistance to those affected while investigations unfold.
We are terribly saddened by the accident tonight in Louisville. Our heartfelt thoughts are with everyone involved. UPS is committed to the safety of our employees, our customers and the communities we serve. This is particularly true in Louisville, home to our airline and thousands of UPSers.
As video and still images spread across social media and news feeds, their stark content is prompting renewed calls for transparency and speed from investigators. Witnesses, residents, and elected officials have described burnt, mangled wreckage and intense fires that made the night feel like a scene from a disaster movie.
Representative Morgan McGarvey captured the visceral impact in his remarks to the press, describing the smell, the sights, and the lasting impressions survivors will carry. His words underline the human toll and the wider community trauma beyond headline numbers and technical details.
“The skies over Louisville looked apocalyptic last night. People scared all over our community, debris falling, ash falling, people sheltering in place – my family one of those families,” McGarvey said, adding the crash site looks like it could be a scene from a “Terminator” movie.
“It is burned and mangled wreckage beyond anything I’ve ever seen. The smells, the sights, these are things that are not going to escape us when we close our eyes tonight,” McGarvey said at a news conference.
Medical teams at UofL Health report treating more than a dozen victims with serious burn and inhalation injuries, and hospitals have mobilized trauma resources to handle complex cases. Emergency responders continue to work on scene and in hospitals as investigations proceed and more information becomes available to families and the public.
Air traffic at the airport has resumed in a limited capacity, but operations remain constrained with only one runway in use and a significant backlog of flights. Recovery, debris removal, and the forensic examination of wreckage will keep parts of the airport disrupted while the NTSB collects critical evidence.
Yes this is very sad! Years ago I had lived nearby a busy airport and saw two smaller privately owned Cessna’s collide during take-off and landing transitional flight mode, which was a much smaller scale incident but quite deadly and horrific! After that I often wondered if some of the larger aircraft with hundreds of passengers on board flying over a densely populated community might be involved in some mishap or midair collision which shuddered my mind to think how terrible that would be! Thank God it never happened!
My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved in this crash!