UPS crash very close to new FORD “universal” EV truck assembly plant

[HOTAS]

Tragic MD-11 crash last night was very close to FORD’s newly retooled, midsize EV truck plant. Thoughts and prayers for all involved !
The nearby Ford Louisville Assembly Plant wasn’t directly struck, but it did lose power temporarily due to the incident . All personnel at the Ford facility were reported safe.

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[WXman]

Yep I live not too far from there. It is tragic. They expect the death toll to rise more today. A lot of the casualties were from businesses outside the airport. I have a guy who's been collecting field data for me around the airport this week and I'm still trying to reach him to make sure he's alright.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I'm Flight Radar fan, tracking incidents like this and other general / military aviation activity.

You may need a subscription to see the historic track record for this flight, it was from a rolling start only 60 seconds before crashing into industrial zone just past the Ford plant.

The Ford plant is right at the edge of the airport property.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/fox-new...sville-airport-emergency-shelter-place-issued

https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6384527473112

 

[WXman]

No official word has come out yet, but last night I got word that an engine had caught fire upon acceleration for take-off, and by the time they realized it the time to abort had passed. This is corroborated by video of the left side engine blowing flames while moving down the runway, and then dash cam video from a truck driver showing the plane rolling hard left in the air before crashing.

Next Day and 2nd Day services were canceled. Airport has one runway reopened now. Governor is sending teams to the site today. Air quality inspectors have reduced the shelter-in-place area.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

This was NOT an engine fire per say. The accident sequence began not with a fire, but by the left engine literally breaking off the wing of the plane. This is evident by the fact that the left engine is currently sitting in the grass along side the runway about where they'd be rotating for takeoff, well before the scene of the crash. Everything after this point is my arm chair educated guessing based on my knowledge of systems, and the videos.

1. Fire began on the left wing, likely from the left wing fuel tank being ripped open by the aforementioned engine ripping off. This evident in several videos of the plane with the left wing on fire as it was nose up after rotation.
   
   
2. Loss of thrust from the left engine since it was no longer attached to the plane (duh). But the plane can take off with a single engine failure and procedure is to continue takeoff after V1. Too late to stop, so they were flying no matter what.
   
   
3. Damage to the left wing likely caused additional drag, which requires additional roll and yaw compensation which causes additional drag. The left wing being on fire probably also not helpful. Which requires steeper pitch up trying to get it in the air. This is evident in the videos where it was pitched up rather high, but wings were still level. This is important. The plane was not rolling over out of control. It was wings level, trying like hell to fly.
   
   
4. Higher pitch angle (noise higher up in the air) also interferes with airflow to the center engine on the tail. That's a known thing with center engine aircraft. There are videos and reports of the center engine looking like it may have been experiencing compressor stalls, so that jives. This will cause a loss of thrust from the center engine.
   
   
5. So now they have one good engine (right), one stalling engine (center), and one missing engine (left). That is not enough power to climb a fully loaded aircraft. It was doomed and there is nothing anyone could do about it.
   
   
6. Aircraft impacted buildings, ripping the left wing off. This rolled the plane as seen in other videos where the right wing is up high with the plane on it's side.
   
   
7. The rest of the plane careens through surrounding buildings going approx 200mph, exploding the center and right fuel tanks, all of which were fully loaded.

The plane was in what appears to be a major maintenance phase about a month ago. And reportedly had some maintenance done the day of the crash. Maintenance records are usually pretty detailed. There are only so many methods by which an engine detaches from a plane. I believe the maintenance records are going to lead straight to the cause pretty quickly.

 

[Lytning]

Eerily similar to the 1979 American Airlines Flight 191 crash of a DC-10 taking off from O'Hare in Chicago. The left engine separated from the wing and resulted in 273 fatalities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191

 

[boggle]

Recommend following Juan's channel for those interested, he released a preliminary video from the little data already collected. As with all other aviation incidents it's just speculation until the NTSB reports its findings. My condolences to all involved.

 

[WXman]

NTSB is here. They're going to do a press conference at 15:00 EST today with current findings.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Eerily similar to the 1979 American Airlines Flight 191 crash of a DC-10 taking off from O'Hare in Chicago. The left engine separated from the wing and resulted in 273 fatalities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191

Yeah. I remember watching Air Crash Investigations or whatever they call the TV show nowadays on Discovery 20 years ago. The tower audio was burned into my head ever since. "Equipment, we need equipment.... There he goes." First thing that came to mind when I saw the engine sitting in the grass was omg not this again.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Aviation Herald does really good factual reporting. Not a fluff site. Just running factually reported information. The comments are another story, read at your own risk.
https://avherald.com/h?article=52f5748f&opt=0

 

[theawesomegamer]

@Runaway Tractor Is correct, I was talking to my brother about this last night-- The airplane should still be able to take off with an engine gone. I don't know why it happened and it's tragic for everyone involved. Really sad.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Grabbed a pic of the video clip showing what I'm talking about, I figured the engine was still there just on fire.

Yes, in that video you're seeing the fire from fuel leaking out where the engine formerly resided.

If you watch closely you can see occasional sparks coming from the tail, which the center tail mounted engine experiencing compressor stalls due to the massive airflow interruption, debris, etc. That will drastically reduce thrust from that engine which is awful timing.

NTSB recovered the black boxes in good condition. Should provide very good data on the sequence of events.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

This is the engine that fell off the plane during the takeoff roll.

 

[21st Century Truck]

My son lives less than 8 miles from the crash site. I could smell the crash site when driving on I-65 just an hour ago on my way to see him.

 

[tls]

CF6 has something of a history of uncontained engine failures.

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