UPS plane broke apart after takeoff in Louisville, preliminary NTSB report shows

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reveals new details about the UPS cargo plane that crashed shortly after takeoff in Louisville earlier this month, killing 14 people and injuring more than 20 others on the ground.

According to the NTSB, UPS Flight 2976 took off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport around 5:14 p.m. on November 4, headed for Honolulu. Moments after liftoff, investigators say the plane’s left engine and the structure holding it to the wing — known as the pylon — separated from the aircraft.

Surveillance video cited in the report showed the engine breaking away just after the plane lifted off the runway. As the engine came off, a fire ignited near the wing. The plane climbed only about 30 feet before it began losing altitude.

The NTSB says the aircraft struck the roof of a UPS warehouse near the airport before crashing into nearby buildings and a storage yard. Much of the MD-11F cargo plane was destroyed in the fire that followed.

14 killed, dozens injured

All three UPS crew members aboard the aircraft were killed, along with 11 people on the ground. The NTSB says 23 others suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious.

What investigators have found so far

The NTSB says the engine pylon — the metal structure that attaches the engine to the wing — showed signs of both fatigue cracks and overstress fractures, meaning the structure had weakened over time before failing.

Parts of the broken pylon, the spherical bearing that connects it to the wing, and hardware from the attachment point were recovered and brought to the NTSB materials lab for deeper analysis.

The report states:

• The left engine detached almost immediately after takeoff.

• Fire erupted near where the pylon separates from the wing.

• The plane never climbed above roughly 30 feet before descending.

• Debris stretched nearly 3,000 feet across multiple buildings.

• Both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were recovered and fully downloaded.

Plane maintenance history

The UPS aircraft had flown nearly 93,000 hours and completed over 21,000 cycles (takeoffs and landings). The NTSB says required inspections on the pylon had been completed in 2021, and a lubrication task was performed weeks before the crash.

More detailed inspections — known as Special Detailed Inspections — were not yet due, the NTSB notes.

UPS grounds MD-11 fleet; FAA issues emergency order

Following the crash, UPS grounded all MD-11 aircraft as a precaution. Boeing recommended the move, and the FAA soon issued an emergency order temporarily grounding MD-11s and later DC-10s due to design similarities.

Parallels to a historic crash

The NTSB points out that the failure seen in this incident is similar to the 1979 American Airlines Flight 191 crash in Chicago — one of the deadliest aviation accidents in U.S. history — which also involved an engine and pylon breaking away during takeoff.

What’s next

The preliminary report emphasizes that the findings are early and subject to change as the investigation continues. Federal investigators will now analyze the fractured components, review maintenance records, examine data from the flight recorders, and evaluate human, mechanical and operational factors.

A final report from the NTSB — including the official cause of the crash — could take a year or more.

You can read the entire preliminary report by clicking HERE.