NTSB releases frame-by-frame images of engine separating during deadly UPS crash in Louisville

[turbinetree]

Updated Nov 20, 2025
By Alexandra Skores Pete Muntean

A critical mount that kept the left engine attached to the UPS flight that crashed in Louisville earlier this month failed only moments after the doomed flight broke ground, according to a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board

The report includes stunning frame-by-frame photos of the left engine of three-engined McDonnell Douglas MD-11F separating from the plane and going up and over the wing and igniting a fireball seen in a sequence of six extraordinary new images obtained by investigators.

The three pilots of UPS flight 2976 and 11 people on the ground were killed when the beleaguered jet sliced a half-mile long debris field across a petroleum recycling facility and UPS warehouse, setting off a massive blaze of fire and black smoke visible for miles.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/20/us/ups-plane-crash-ntsb-report

[Renew Deal]

1. Here's a good analysis

[scipan]

2. Not a pilot, but you know how they say it's not usually a single cause but a series of mistakes?

This seems like a single point failure. Even maintenance wasn't at fault since they only inspect it every 6 years.

I wonder if it's a design flaw, but it lasted for 34 ? (or something) years.

6 years seems like a pretty long time.

[Sympthsical]

3. Depends what comes out in the investigation

When a similar incident with an engine mount occurred on Flight 191 in 1979, the culprit was faulty maintenance procedures. The ground crew were taking shortcuts to reduce turn around times. It didn't fail right away. A little crack that grew over time until the mount failed. They're certainly going to go through all the logs and see what the history was there.

Sometimes it's something ridiculously small. Like that Sioux City crash landing. A microscopic defect in the titanium of a fan disc led to fatigue cracking that went undetected.

The NTSB is fascinatingly good at figuring this stuff out.

[scipan]

4. Yes NTSB is amazing. What is also amazing is, it would have been survivable if

the engine had broken off in a cleaner way, not gone above the wing and broken apart.