Chilling dashcam footage captures UPS plane missing engine moments before deadly crash

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Newly released footage of a UPS cargo plane barreling down the runway at Louisville International Airport clearly shows it was missing its left engine. 

The dash cam clip captures the haunting moments before the aircraft crashed and exploded into flames, killing at least 12 people.

Authorities confirmed on Wednesday, November 5, that the disaster stemmed from one of the plane’s engines catching fire and tearing off during takeoff.

The doomed McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was bound for Hawaii and went down just after 5:15 pm on November 4, just moments after liftoff from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.

The aircraft, operated by delivery giant UPS, didn’t make it far and slammed into several nearby businesses, sparking an inferno and claiming multiple lives on the ground. The three-person flight crew was also on board when the plane went down.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear called the tragedy “heartbreaking” and “unimaginable.”

The engine that didn’t make it

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived in Louisville to piece together what went wrong. NTSB member Todd Inman told reporters that after reviewing surveillance footage, investigators confirmed “the left engine detaching from the wing during the take-off roll.”

While the rest of the aircraft disintegrated across a fiery debris field stretching nearly half a mile, the engine itself didn’t travel far and stayed “on the airfield,” Inman said.

He also noted that the plane’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (the so-called black boxes) have been located and will be sent to Washington for analysis.

Tuesday’s crash has already been labeled the deadliest in UPS’ global history. The company’s massive Louisville hub, Worldport, serves as the backbone of its operations and employs thousands. In the aftermath, UPS temporarily halted package sorting operations as investigators combed through the wreckage.

38,000 gallons of fuel and a close call

Local station WLKY shared video showing the left engine engulfed in flames as the aircraft struggled to lift off. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced early Wednesday that one runway had been reopened.

Airport spokesman Jonathan Bevin said the aircraft “went down three miles (five kilometers) South of the airfield” shortly after takeoff.

The plane had been loaded with around 38,000 gallons of jet fuel for the long-haul journey to Hawaii. Despite the explosion, Beshear noted that it narrowly missed a Ford vehicle assembly plant next to UPS’s Worldport facility, which employs roughly 3,000 workers.

“It could have been significantly worse,” Beshear said.

Aerial footage showed a scorched stretch of land with twisted debris and thick smoke billowing into the sky as firefighters battled the flames. Beshear said the aircraft struck a petroleum recycling facility “pretty directly,” causing the explosion and the fireball that followed.

UPS, Boeing, and a nation on edge amid shutdown

Controversial aerospace behemoth Boeing said in a statement that it “stands ready to support our customer and has offered technical assistance to the NTSB.”

UPS operates nearly 2,000 daily flights across more than 200 countries and has a fleet of 516 aircraft, of which it owns 294 outright. The company’s MD-11 freighters are long-haul workhorses, but this latest crash has raised fresh concerns about the aging model.

The tragedy notably unfolded amid the longest government shutdown in US history, which has crippled several federal agencies, including transportation.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned earlier this week of potential “mass chaos” due to air traffic control shortages. “You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have the air traffic controllers,” Duffy said Tuesday.

Still, NTSB’s Inman insisted that investigators had “no evidence of staffing shortages” at Louisville’s control tower during the accident, though a full-scale probe into “all aspects of the crash, including air traffic control staffing,” is now underway.

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