NEWS ABOUT THE UPS PLANE CRASH IN THE U.S. (NOVEMBER 4, 2025)
Bunny > News > NEWS ABOUT THE UPS PLANE CRASH IN THE U.S. (NOVEMBER 4, 2025)
At around 5:15 PM on November 4 (early morning November 5, Vietnam time), UPS Flight 2976, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F cargo plane, crashed shortly after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), home to UPS Worldport – the world’s largest air cargo sorting hub.
As of now, the death toll has risen to 13, including one child. Nine people remain missing, and the chances of finding survivors are considered very low. The NTSB successfully recovered the black box containing 63 hours of flight data, confirming that the left engine detached due to a fire when the aircraft was only at an altitude of 475 feet.
This is the deadliest accident in UPS Airlines’ history. On the evening of November 6, the Teamsters union held a candlelight vigil locally.
The initial cause of the UPS plane explosion was determined to be a fire on the left wing, which caused an engine to detach shortly after takeoff. The engine separating from the aircraft caused the plane to lose control and crash, resulting in a massive explosion. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were recovered intact for in-depth investigation.
Picture: Massive plumes of smoke billowed from the scene of the plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 4
- The question arises: Why was UPS still flying a 34-year-old MD-11?
The UPS freighter that crashed in Louisville was a 34-year old jet. While that’s old for a passenger plane, that’s not so unusual in the world of air cargo.
There are no initial indications that the age of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was in any way a factor in the fatal crash that killed at least 12 people shortly after take off from Louisville, Kentucky Tuesday evening. The cause is still under investigation and will be for some time.
But the crash does highlight how planes, can have a much longer long lifespan than the average flyer realizes. That’s because older planes are often retired due to fuel economy, rather than wear-and-tear on the aircraft itself. If a plane isn’t flying as much, fuel economy isn’t as large a concern. And cargo jets fly about 30% less than passenger jets.
UPS has 25 other MD-11s in service, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, and another six that have been in storage for at least the last three months. FedEx, which has been phasing out its MD-11s, has 38 in service, and 34 in storage. And cargo carrier Western Global Airlines has four in service and 12 in storage.
The MD-11 that crashed was initially delivered to Thai Airlines the first year the plane was put into service in 1991. It was sold to UPS and converted to a freighter in 2006.
At that point it essentially became a new airplane, undergoing a complete overhaul.
Aviation consultant Mike Boyd said there as a number of old passenger plane models still in use. American, Delta and United airlines each fly hundreds of planes models which have an average age of between 20 to 30 years, according to company reports. Southwest has more than 300 737-700s with an average age of 19 years.
Therefore, the cause of this plane crash may not be related to the age of the aircraft. The cause will be determined by the investigating authorities and announced as soon as possible.
