Some terrible stills from dashcam footage shown on the "jeffostroff" youtube channel depict the final moments of UPS Flight 2976, a scheduled domestic cargo flight from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport that went down on 4 November 2025. The aircraft struggles to clear the perimeter fence, its landing gear ploughing through the roof of a storage building before the wing clips high tension cables. Minus its port engine the heavily laden machine is already well ablaze and slowly veering to the left..
The MD-11F (N259UP) lost the port no. 1 engine presumably after a catastrophic failure as the aircraft was passing V1 (rotate speed) as it hurtled down runway 17R. Forced to continue with its takeoff, the aircraft rotated off the active runway, as the number one engine departed the aircraft, coming to rest next to runway 17R. The MD-11F reached a maximum altitude of only 175 feet and a highest ground speed recorded of 186 knots. By this stage the aircraft was uncontrollable and, seconds later, impacted a semi truck parking area, destroying multiple buildings and vehicles. Sadly, three crew members on board, along with 6 people on the ground, were killed. Another tragic and cruel accident. A small extract from 'freight dog' Chris van Heijst on FB;
".. Without going into deep speculation, it seems obvious the aircraft experienced a catastrophic engine separation just after V1 speed. No possibility to stop the aircraft anymore: they had to continue. And engine number 2 failed just during rotation, quite possibly due to ingestion of debris from the fiercely burning wing, sealing their fate. I can’t help thinking what I would or could have done in such a scenario. My only conclusion is: nothing at all. A typical black swan event; an extremely rare, unpredictable occurrence with massive impact..."
Sometimes there is simply nothing that can be done.
and from Nico Wissink to provide some context -engine separations are not unheard of;
"..This accident when I first saw it gave me flashbacks to the National crash in Bagram, one I had on my schedule for weeks and escaped because we were 2 days behind schedule. I finally can watch the videos again. There are several similarities between the 2 accidents, everything is fine until after V1 or rotation, and all of a sudden things happen that make the airplane completely unable to fly, with a crew fighting for their lives but really just along for a very short ride.
Many accidents have a crew component as for the cause, these two don't have that.
Engine separations are not unheard of, but quite unusual. At one airline in 2004 a classmate had been the captain of a L1011 out of MIA that had an engine separation right after rotation. They came back around, and that incident is long forgotten. The DC10 accident at ORD has been mentioned a lot. Maintenance people used incorrect procedures to change an engine, by removing the pylon with engine attached, which is a no-no. You leave the pylon attached to the wing. Kalitta had a 747-200 lose one over Lake Michigan. ELAL had the crash in AMS on a 747-200 where an engine separated, rolled under the wing and knocked its neighbor off. Weak shear pins were the cause for both of these, and ever since we have not had any. This UPS MD11 just came out of heavy check, and I think we will find the answer there. The delay before departure was from excessive vibration on the previous flight. We shall wait and find out. But yes, the cargo community is shocked..."
