Officials to examine maintenance history of UPS plane that crashed in Louisville, Kentucky

Beth Musgrave, Lexington Herald-Leader on Nov 6, 2025

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Federal aviation safety officials said Thursday they are looking at the full maintenance history of a UPS cargo plane that crashed Tuesday in Louisville, Kentucky, killing 13 people.

National Transportation Safety Board Member Todd Inman said that review includes more than 6 weeks of heavy maintenance overhaul done in September and October. The maintenance review is part of a broader investigation to determine what caused the McConnell Douglas MD-11 plane to crash. UPS is providing all maintenance records for the plane, he said.

“We are currently downloading that information,” Inman said during a press conference in Louisville.

The group will also go back and get the full history of what maintenance and checks were done on the aircraft, he said.

Flight-tracking data indicates the McDonnell Douglass MD-11 was in San Antonio from early September through mid-October for maintenance.

UPS told investigators no maintenance was done on the plane immediately prior to it taking off Tuesday. It was also not delayed for maintenance, Inman said. Investigators also have access to video taken from closed-circuit television of what was done prior to the plane taking off.

On Wednesday, Inman said video from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport showed the left engine detached from the plane shortly after takeoff. Inman said a large plume of fire occurred during take off. The plane, which was destined for Hawaii, was able to get off the ground and cleared a fence before plummeting, hitting several structures, including two nearby businesses, Inman said.

State and local officials have said the debris radius is more than a half mile.

Earlier on Thursday, NTSB released images of the cockpit recorder and flight data recorder. Both were taken to NTSB in Washington, D.C., and hours of data were extracted from both recorders that will be analyzed, Inman said Thursday.

The fiery crash happened around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4. Thirteen people, including three UPS crew members, were killed, Mayor Craig Greenberg said Thursday evening.

NTSB investigators are focusing on several areas including operations, mechanical issues, power plant or engine problems and structural issues with the plane. Maintenance issues will also be examined, Inman said.

A lawyer who represents families in lawsuits involving plane crashes said the separation of an engine from an aircraft points to structural and maintenance failures.

“An engine separating from the aircraft during takeoff is an exceedingly rare and catastrophic event,” said Ladd Sanger, an aviation attorney with Slack Davis Sanger in Dallas. “The DC-10, the earlier version of the MD-11, suffered a similar failure in Chicago in 1979. The early evidence here points toward a structural or maintenance-related failure rather than pilot error. It appears the fire and debris from the left engine may have caused the tail-mounted engine to lose power as well. With a heavily fueled aircraft, that sequence would make the loss of control unavoidable.”

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, on May 25, 1979, American Airlines Flight 191 left engine also separated from the wing, causing a crash that killed 271 people in Chicago.

Investigators have previously said the plane had more than 38,000 gallons of jet fuel on board.

According to Flightradar 24, which tracks flight data, the plane regularly makes cargo trips from Louisville to Honolulu, with the most recent trip listed on Oct. 30.

MD-11 planes have three engines. Two are mounted underneath the left and right wings, with a third engine located near the tail. According to an online database of flight crashes by the Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives, a Geneva-based group that tracks airplane accidents, the MD-11 has been involved in 11 incidents resulting in more than 244 fatalities since 1993. Some involved pilot error or weather conditions, while other incidents were caused by electrical and mechanical problems.

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