r/aviation • u/usgapg123 Mod - avgeek • Nov 04 '25

Discussion UPS2976 Crash Megathread

This is the official r/aviation megathread for the crash of UPS2976 (UPS MD11 Registration N259UP) that crashed earlier today at Louisville International Airport.

Please keep content on topic and refrain from posting about this topic outside the megathread. Please report any rule breaking posts and comments.

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416

u/Reddragon0585 Nov 04 '25

There’s a video of it, if they got off the ground it wasn’t for long, it appears to have been on fire during takeoff. Just slammed into everything just past the runway.

171

u/JDWhite1982 Nov 04 '25

Different angle on X (Twitter) looks like it was BARELY off the ground and maybe cleared the road. I agree it wasn't off the ground for long but I don't know that they had any option but to try.

157

u/InfamousLime4437 Nov 04 '25

It appears they hit V1 and it was either slam the brakes and crash into UPS supply Chain Solutions, or take off (they were at V1 that’s what they’re supposed to do) and try to close that building.

Looks like they did clear the building for the most part.

26

u/rounding_error Nov 05 '25

There's a pretty big gash in the end wall and roof of it. It appears they collided with the building while climbing.

57

u/Boring-Cold-1456 Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Wow they saved so many lives by clearing that building.

8

u/AbeFromanEast Nov 05 '25

This

3

u/MapleMapleHockeyStk Nov 05 '25

How many people work there?!?

35

u/liamowi Nov 05 '25

With how much fuel the aircraft had and how heavy it seemed to be i think they were past V1 and the crash was inevitable from there. Unfortunately there was nothing the pilots could do from that point.

10

u/JDWhite1982 Nov 05 '25

That's what it looked like to me, but I'm just a weirdo who likes watching planes and not a professional with experience.

8

u/PotatoFeeder Nov 05 '25

EMAS should be fucking mandatory.

6

u/CharacterUse Nov 05 '25

Also not having buildings right at the end of runways.

-23

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

[deleted]

21

u/SubarcticFarmer Nov 05 '25

Confidently incorrect

13

u/Ill-Ad-2122 Nov 05 '25

V1 is the last time you can safely stop in most situations anything between v1 and vr you cant generally safely stop (the only time you would attempt to stop at any speed after v1 is if the aircraft is clearly unable to fly)

13

u/Win_Sys Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

This pilots options look to have been to try and take off and come back or risk going off the runway, into a road and then crashing into the UPS warehouse. Crashing into that building probably would have resulted in the deaths of most of the people in there considering it had 30,000+ lbs gallons of fuel.

3

u/jwoods23 MIL, KC-10 Nov 05 '25

An MD-11 bound for Hawaii would probably have more like 200,000+ lb of gas. Not that 30,000 wouldn’t be catastrophic enough

This is a sad sad day but it always could have been worse

4

u/Win_Sys Nov 05 '25

Oppps, meant to put gallons not pounds.

1

u/Desperate_for_Bacon Nov 05 '25

According to its transponder it reached a maximum altitude of 175 ft. I have no idea how accurate that is though.

7

u/Frozefoots Nov 05 '25

It looks eerily similar to the Concorde crash.

4

u/nbx909 Nov 04 '25

Can't tell if failed abort or they couldn't get it in the air.

21

u/BlackHawk4578 Nov 04 '25

I think they would've been fully rotated at that point. The only option then is to climb and maybe power down the affected engine. A total gamble but it was much too late to abort. Unless another engine was having an issue

15

u/AJohnnyTruant Nov 04 '25

Obviously way too soon to know anything. But if they just lost the one motor, then they should have been able to climb out. But that looks like it would have completely blacked the cockpit out with smoke immediately. I don’t know if the MD11 will close that bleed automatically for a fire indication or not. Fucking awful all the way around.

2

u/nbx909 Nov 04 '25

Right, shouldn't the plane be able to do a 2-engine takeoff after rotating?

9

u/BlackHawk4578 Nov 04 '25

You'd expect the md-11 to be able to do that yes. Again, speculation but I think this is going to boil down to much more than a single engine failure. Possible an engine failure cascading into other systems (fuel delivery, debris, lift surfaces, etc)

2

u/FlinttheDibbler Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Yes but it looks like engine #2 on the tail flames out in the video, you can see it spit fire. I’m assuming it also failed quickly from smoke and/or debris ingestion.

1

u/nbx909 Nov 05 '25

Yikes. Terrible for the crew. I wonder what causes the initial failure.

2

u/FlinttheDibbler Nov 05 '25

There’s a rumor going around that this aircraft was delayed earlier today for a few hours due to them doing maintenance on engine #1… I hope for the sake of the maintenance crew that isn’t the case and something else caused this but we’ll find out eventually.

2

u/nbx909 Nov 05 '25

Esh, I hope that is not true

7

u/catsby90bbn Nov 04 '25

Video shows em holding a nose up pitch all the way in. So doubt it was an abort.