Looks like the plane went down adjacent to a large hump yard. Crash is just south of the end of the runway. Would that be CSX? Makes one wonder why a waste oil facility would be located immediately in the flight path. Massive fire.
City is limited by the Ohio River to the North and West and geography to the South of it. I am surprised they had space for the airport.
Crash site is adjacent to the junction of I-65 and the Watterson Freeway, I-264. I have driven through there many times when my son was at Grand River Academy in Austinburg.
Videos are making it look like an engine was on fire before the plane left the ground, NTSB will have a lot of issues getting to the cause.
Maybe not, the engine is laying next to the runway. I have my guesses but will not speculate.
That’s the location of the UPS world-wide air freight logistics hub. Everything that moves via air in the UPS system in the USA into or out to other nations comes into that place. It’s second only to FedEx in Memphis for cargo handling in the USA. Plane was an MD11. From the video it looks like it sucked something into the engine that caused it to explode. It’s similar to the Concorde crash in France. That was cause by a piece of metal falling off the plane in front of it.
The obvious is easy - but what caused it to be obvious may require some sleuthing,
1 Like
I lived South of Louisville for two years. Liked the rolling hills South of the City and watching CSX trains struggle on the old L&N over the same.
One of the fastest trains I ever heard (outside the NEC and European LGV) was on the ex-L&N through Sonora (exit in the high 80s off I-65, before Elizabethtown and the climb up to Fort Knox). That looks to be a long, straight track in both directions.
At one time the stations at the Sonora exit had the cheapest gas between the Kentucky-Tennessee line and Louisville (the most expensive was in that mass-scale scam called Shepherdsville [sp?]) and it was at the northbound one that I heard the clatter. Either he had a train of very short 8-wheel cars or he was going as quickly as his power permitted…
1 Like
They had a derailment when I was living there near Elizabethtown. The former L&N track was in pretty decent shape as I remember it. I remember the old IC line that would climb Muldragh hill? (is that correct?). Quite a climb with a lot of wood trestles. On top of the bluff was Fort Knox and the spur to the base. Rail layout on Fort Knox was pretty extensive as it used to be an Armor training post. They had two red painted U.S. Army hi-hood Geep’s on post with Civilian crews, that would do switching as needed. I think the old IC was Paducah and Louisville when I was there. That was right after ODS, Saudi Officers on post in uniform in the Burger King (lol…I guess they could get away with it there). I was a civilian contractor back then and got to eat in the Officer Dining Facilities, O-Club, etc. Almost like a Federal Civilian but not all the perks.
1 Like
This major accident may have very similar to a China Eastern MD-11 incident that had the #3 engine fail and fall off. I just happened to see a video accident analysis about that incident in the last 2 weeks. The CE failure caused the slats to change position when the engine departed due to it yanking the slat control cable. The UPS plane certainly showed the #1 engine with a very large fireball.
What is also eerily similar is the UPS plane appeared to climb then sink just like the Air India plane did. Will try to find a link to that video,.
Three minutes of facts
blue streak: I saw the wreckage of the AA DC-10 that lost the port engine on takeoff at O’Hare. Horrible! Similar?
I lived near there twice, once at
Fort Knox and once in my career. There is a smaller airport north east of SDF
Info from NTSB
Yes the O’Hare AA accident was a DC-10 which was the parent of the MD-11. Many of the parts and designs for the 11s came from the 10s. That AA was also the #1 engine which came off yanking the control cables for the leading edge slats causing the AA to loose lift and the wing aero dynamically stalled.
The picture of the UPS engine lying beside runway is telling. Now if the engines on that plane were the GE CF-80C2D have to ask where is the front fan section. Some of the MD-11s UPS got thru AA retirements had the GE engine. Do not know if the other MD-11s UPS acquired have the GE or the P&W 4460/62.
Where the engine ended will tell NTSB a lot. Where on the take off roll did it detach? With the engine off the airplane the crew probably did not get a fire warning since the Warning loops are attached to the engine. The only indication would be full digital engine monitor showing no readout. Since the engine fell off the fire we see at rotation in that one video had to be fuel leaking out of engine pylon or the wing itself. Again where did the engine detach?? The initial impact point will tell how fast the plane was going when it detached.
Every airplane I flew did not rush shut down procedures until flight stabilized. No emergency procedure ever mentioned engine falling off airplane. This is going to be quite a comprehensive NTSB investigation. A lot of the investigation will need to explain all the length of the ground fires.
The report that the plane had some maintenance done in September. Wonder if the #1 engine was swapped out?? For our AA and EAL pilots have a one word question. Fork lift??
It was originally ordered by Thai Airways with GE engines.
That thought came to my mind as well, though will wait for the results of the investigation before making any conclusions.
1 Like
Remember - we are in November - over a month AFTER any September maintenance.
Someone posted on YouTube the number 2 engine appears to also have had issues right as it was lifting off, if you watch the video closely you see a brief flame in it’s exhaust. Speculation of a stall with it. Lots of speculation still.