Left Engine of UPS Cargo Plane Detached From the Wing, Official Says

Surveillance footage showed the UPS cargo plane that crashed near a Louisville airport lost its left engine just before takeoff, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said.

During a press conference on Wednesday, J. Todd Inman, an NTSB member, said that the CCTV security footage reviewed by the agency showed “the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll.” Takeoff roll is the distance an aircraft travels on the runway just before it goes airborne.

“This and other videos, along with evidence we are finding, are very valuable assets to our investigators,” Inman said.

The UPS plane, a 34-year-old widebody jet manufactured by McDonnell-Douglas, which merged with Boeing Company in 1997, was headed to Honolulu on Tuesday when it crashed near the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Tuesday evening.

The tail number was N259UP. It was first delivered to Thai Airways in 1991, before being acquired by UPS in 2006.

A screengrab of a social media video that was posted by Reuters showed the cargo plane banking hard left in the moment of the impact before the aircraft was engulfed in flames.

It’s very rare, but engines can shear off at high vibrations. Mark Stephens, a former Delta MD-11 pilot and instructor, described it to Business Insider as a washing machine that spins out of control.

“The most dangerous time to lose an engine is right after takeoff,” he said. “They would have very little time to react.”

Louisville Fire Department chief Brian O’Neill said on Tuesday that the aircraft had around 38,000 gallons of fuel on board.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in an X post on Wednesday evening that the death toll had reached at least 11 people and expected it to be 12 “by the end of the day.”

The crash caused UPS to halt package sorting operations at Worldport, the company’s automated package sorting facility near the Louisville airport. UPS said in an updated statement on Wednesday that it canceled Second Day air shipping services from the facility.

A Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider that its technical team is supporting the NTSB’s investigation in the matter.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in this accident,” the spokesperson said.

There are about 60 MD-11 aircraft flying worldwide for cargo airlines UPS, FedEx, and Western Global, per Cirium. It has not flown passengers since 2014.

This is the second major cargo airline crash in a month. On October 20, an Emirates SkyCargo plane killed two people on the ground after it ran off the runway in Hong Kong.