Left engine fell off plane during take-off before fatal Louisville crash

Washington: The left engine of a UPS cargo plane detached from the aircraft while it was taking off, before it crashed into an industrial area just outside the airport in Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least nine people.

The three onboard crew, along with six people on the ground, died when the wide-body McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft, fully laden with fuel, slammed into the ground on Tuesday evening local time (Wednesday AEDT).

Graphic dashcam footage from a trucking company’s yard at the end of the runway showed the moment of impact.

The US National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Todd Inman said investigators had found the flight’s black boxes, which were being sent to the agency’s Washington headquarters. But CCTV footage gave early indications of what happened to the doomed plane.

“After being cleared for take-off, a large plume of fire in the area of the left wing occurred during the take-off roll. The plane lifted off and gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of [the] runway,” Inman said.

“Shortly after clearing that fence, it made impact with structures and the terrain off of the airport property. A post-impact fire ensued which covers approximately almost a half of a mile.

“We have viewed airport CCTV security coverage, which shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the take-off roll.”

Inman later confirmed photographs circulating online showed the plane’s detached left engine, which was found on the airfield, not in the debris field beyond the airport fence.

“That correlates with the video we’ve seen of it detaching from the airplane while it was in flight. We also know a fire was occurring during that time,” he said.

Investigators were preparing to do a “FOD walk” – foreign object debris – on the runway to document and collect all relevant evidence, Inman said.

He also said investigators were not aware of any staffing shortages at the airport due to the federal government shutdown.

The new information shared by the NTSB has echoes of the worst aircraft disaster in US history, when in 1979 American Airlines flight 191 crashed on take-off from Chicago, killing all 271 passengers and crew on board.

That aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, a predecessor of the MD-11, and also involved the left engine separating from the wing during take-off, leading to a loss of control. Investigators found the engine detached due to improper maintenance, leading to the failure of the pylon structure.

Aviation journal Leeham News, however, cautioned against drawing early conclusions on the Louisville crash, pointing to unconfirmed reports that the MD-11’s departure was delayed for two hours due to maintenance on No.1 engine.

The publication cited a retired Boeing employee, whose duties during his career included safety, who suggested that a catastrophic uncontained engine failure could have taken out the hydraulics and ignited fuel.

The flight, UPS2976, was headed from UPS’s worldwide hub in Louisville to Honolulu in Hawaii. It plunged into warehouses belonging to two businesses – a petroleum recycling facility and an auto parts yard – contributing to the massive blaze.

About 200 firefighters and emergency personnel, along with 50 trucks, were called to battle the fire, which filled the evening sky with thick, black smoke.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the number of confirmed fatalities would likely grow by at least one, to 10. “We hope it doesn’t grow by too many more,” he said.

With Reuters

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