Aviation experts reveal what they think happened after plane crashed during takeoff killing 12

A team of investigators are on the ground in Louisville, Kentucky, after at least 12 people were killed in a horrifying plane crash that took place during takeoff on the evening of Wednesday, November 4.

Amateur footage from around the runway shows UPS Airlines Flight 2976 erupting into a massive fireball after experiencing an apparent catastrophic failure just moments after leaving the ground, crashing back to earth in a terrifying moment that damaged nearby businesses and injured more than a dozen people on the ground.

The cause of Wednesday’s plane crash is now subject to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation, which has recovered CCTV recordings from around the airport showing the moment the UPS cargo flight caught fire, with an engine appearing to fall off the aircraft during takeoff.

In jaw-dropping footage shared by local ABC affiliate WFAA, the UPS flight can be seen crashing sideways at high speed into buildings on the ground at Louisville Muhammad Ali international airport.

Local residents were ordered to shelter in place after the massive fireball

Aviation experts around the world have described their shock at the incident, as this type of catastrophic engine failure is exceedingly rare.

“What we had here was probably one of the worst in history, if not the worst, uncontained engine failures,” one expert told WFAA.

Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS, told the company’s employees that she was ‘deeply saddened’ by the deadly tragedy, only the third in the company’s 15-year history of air freight.

She added that the victims would be kept ‘in our hearts as we continue our commitment to safety, care and community’.

What happened to UPS Airlines Flight 2976?

UPS Airlines Flight 2976 was just one of many cargo flights departing that day from the Louisville airport, which functions as the company’s central ‘Worldport’ for its air freight business.

The doomed aircraft was a 34-year-old triple-engined McDonnell Douglas MD-11, which has an engine on each wing and another attached to the plane’s rear stabilizer. When it left the runway at 5.13pm on Wednesday, it was embarking on a 8.5 hour journey to Honolulu, Hawaii.

Tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows the flight taxiing on runway 17R before reaching a speed of 214mph as it attempted to take off from Louisville. However, footage shows the left wing of Flight 2976 becoming engulfed in flames as it roared into the evening sky, climbing 175ft and clearing the airport’s boundary fence.

The NTSB believes that, at this point, the engine detached from this wing as the aircraft veered, sideways, into structures on the ground, including a fuel recycling company, a mechanic business, and a water bottling plant.

Shocking video captured by the dashcam of a stunned truck driver shows Flight 2976 on its side as it plows into vehicles and buildings on the ground, dragging a huge fireball and smoke cloud behind it.

Falling debris from the aircraft was reported by the BBC to have damaged at least two buildings in the aftermath, with a charred and burned-out aircraft engine seen lying on the runway as emergency crews rushed to help any survivors.

What caused the UPS plane crash?

The crash took place shortly after 5pm, November 4

Recordings of conversations with air traffic control from the moments before the crash are indecipherable, making it difficult to piece together the final moments aboard the UPS flight before the deadly tragedy.

Yet aviation experts have pointed to the potential failure of two engines on the MD 11 cargo aircraft, telling BBC Verify that the fire that engulfed the engine on the plane’s left wing caused the plane to veer, before the engine detached entirely. Two experts said this engine likely suffered a mechanical or structural fault before falling off entirely.

Retired pilot Terry Tozer told the organization that this type of aircraft failure was ‘almost unheard of’ in the industry, but pointed to an eerily similar tragedy that took place almost half a century ago as a comparison.

In 1979, 273 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 191 smashed into the ground at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, after one of the plane’s engines fell off during takeoff.

The veteran pilot said that the UPS cargo plane would have been capable of flying with just two engines if one failed, but the damage caused by the left wing’s flaming engine would likely have also caused issues with the rear engine on the tail and drastically reduced thrust.

Mr Tozer told the BBC: “With such a catastrophic event we cannot know what other damage was done when the engine came adrift.”

Buckinghamshire New University aviation lecturer Marco Chan independently concurred with Tozer after analyzing crash footage, saying: “The upper engine that expelled a puff of smoke appears to wind down almost immediately afterwards.

“That left only the right engine producing thrust, creating a severe power imbalance and leaving the aircraft unable to gain height.”

How did the UPS flight cause such a huge fireball?

The crash caused a huge fireball

The deadly impact became evident almost immediately after the UPS Airlines Flight 2976 crash due to the vast fireball that came from the aircraft as it smashed into structures surrounding Louisville Muhammad Ali international airport.

This inferno rapidly spread to surrounding damaged buildings, with firefighters battling the huge blaze into the night as Kentuckians watched a vast cloud of black smoke descend over the city’s skyline.

While the UPS flight is not believed to have been carrying hazardous cargo, some aviation experts have pointed out that, with a destination of Hawaii and flight time of 8.5 hours, the craft would have been fully loaded with aviation fuel.

Mr Chan said: “This was a long-haul cargo flight from Louisville to Honolulu, so the MD-11 was carrying a lot of jet fuel. That heavy fuel load not only reduced performance but also explains the large fireball seen after the crash.”

Officials have detailed how the flight was carrying 38,000 gallons of fuel for its lengthy journey when it caught fire and exploded, with the ensuing inferno likely fueled further by one of the buildings hit by the burning plane – a fuel recycling centre.