Routine check for UPS plane before take-off was ‘uneventful’, official says

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - For just over two hours in the afternoon of Nov 4, the crew on a UPS flight went through its pre-flight checklist, making sure everything was in order for the trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Honolulu.

It “was what we would call uneventful,” said Mr Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB).

Then, 37 seconds after the pilots had called out for more engine thrust as they prepared to take off, a bell began to sound in the cockpit.

The ringing continued for 25 seconds – ending only, it seems, after the left engine detached from the wing and the

MD-11 cargo plane plunged to the ground

just past the runway, killing at least 13 people.

Mr Inman was describing the contents found on the plane’s flight cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered in the detritus of the fiery crash.

He said it is unclear at the moment what the bell was signalling about the jet, which was loaded with 172,751 litres of fuel.

Speaking at a news conference on Nov 7, Mr Inman did not describe in any detail whether the three-person crew knew that a catastrophe was at hand.

“The crew tried to control the aircraft,” he said.

Exactly what the crew communicated to flight controllers and to one another will not become public for months, when a transcript will be released, along with other details of the investigation.

Investigators from NTSB and other agencies are continuing to

pick their way through the crash site

in their effort to determine what happened on Nov 4.

Investigators have also been dispatched to San Antonio, where the plane was recently sent for six weeks for what Mr Inman called “a heavy check” – a comprehensive inspection that goes beyond routine maintenance and includes test flights.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that federal aviation records show at least five maintenance issues were reported in 2025, including three while the plane was in San Antonio.

But the newspaper noted that the plane did not have a large number of reports in 2025, relative to other planes in the UPS fleet, and that the reports do not paint a complete picture of an aircraft’s condition.

UPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Nov 7.

The on-the-ground investigation has been complicated because the plane crashed into a car parts store and a waste treatment business, which house materials that might be similar to what would be found on an airplane.

That makes it more difficult to determine where exactly the debris is from. Also, investigators were delayed on Nov 7 by the threat of lightning in the area.

“Our role is not to speculate,” Mr Inman said. “We want to know what happened and why it happened, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” NYTIMES