Boeing, FAA to face questioning at NTSB hearing in deadly Louisville UPS plane crash investigation

WASHINGTON (WDRB) — For the first time since 15 people were killed when a UPS plane went down in Louisville, Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration and UPS will publicly face questions about what went wrong.

A two-day National Transportation Safety Board investigative hearing starts Tuesday at the nation's capitol as part of the agency's investigation into the Nov. 4, 2025, crash.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo plane, built in 1991, went down around 5:15 p.m. after its left wing caught fire. The plane was fully loaded with fuel for the nine-hour flight to Honolulu from UPS Worldport at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. Fifteen people, including three pilots, died in the crash.

The NTSB's preliminary report said the plane's left engine caught fire and detached during takeoff. In that report, the agency's investigation revealed the part that secured the engine showed "fatigue cracks" and overstress failure across much of the bearing race inside the area that attached the plane's left engine to its wing. Investigators said the UPS plane got only 30 feet into the air before it crashed and burst into flames, hitting several businesses just south of the airport.

The NTSB hearing is scheduled for May 19-20 at its boardroom in Washington, D.C. It will also be streamed live. The agency said it conducts investigative hearings "to assist in obtaining information necessary to determine the facts and circumstances of transportation accidents or incidents under investigation." While the hearing is open to the public, only board members, investigators, witnesses and parties to the hearing are permitted to participate.

During the hearings, the NTSB will hear from witnesses about what led up to UPS Flight 2976 crashing just after takeoff.

The first day of hearings will focus on inspections, maintenance and safety reporting. The NTSB will hear from UPS, the FAA, Boeing and the company that worked on the plane shortly before the crash.

The second day of hearings will shift to the design of the pylon, the structure that connects the engine to the wing.

The UPS cargo plane was nearly airborne when a bell sounded in the cockpit, Inman said. For the next 25 seconds, the bell rang and the pilots tried to control the aircraft as it barely lifted off the runway, its left wing ablaze and missing an engine, and then plowed into the ground in a fireball.

NTSB Preliminary report | Victims identified | What's next

Flight records suggest the 34-year-old plane underwent maintenance while it was on the ground in San Antonio for more than a month, from September through mid-October. The Associated Press reported it wasn't clear what work was done. But according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the plane needed a critical fuel tank repair.

The report cited FAA maintenance records that show the jet needed a permanent repair to fix a crack in the fuel tank before it returned to service. WDRB is working to independently obtain those maintenance records from the FAA.

The federal investigation into the plane crash showed one of the key defects found on the plane's failed engine was a known issue among Boeing's service team, albeit one Boeing didn't believe would lead to a "safety of flight condition."

NTSB investigators then went back into Boeing service data and confirmed the design of the bearing assembly was consistent with the original design of that part. However, a Boeing Service Letter dated Feb. 7, 2011, told operators the company was aware of four previous bearing race failures on three different airplanes. Boeing had seen the fractures of the bearing race, with the parts splitting in two and moving out of place.

However, Boeing told operators its review of the bearing failure "would not result in a safety of flight condition."

Boeing said further regular inspection of MD-11 airplanes would include a look at this bearing assembly, something scheduled for 60-month service intervals. And while Boeing used that service letter to discuss a new bearing assembly configuration, the installation of the original parts "was not prohibited."

Since 1990, there have been at least 10 MD-11 crashes or accidents where the plane was damaged beyond repair.

The NTSB will use what comes out of the hearings to determine probable cause and make safety recommendations aimed at preventing something like this from happening again. However, the agency does not determine legal blame.

Sean Garber, the owner of Grade A Auto Parts — where 12 employees and customers were killed when the plane crashed into the business — will also speak. Garber recently filed a lawsuit against UPS, Boeing, General Electric and several other companies.

"As these hearings begin, it reopens wounds and it reopens the day of that tragedy, and that is heartbreaking for me," Garber said previously.

Several relatives of those who died in the crash are expected to be present for the hearings.

Days after the crash, UPS and FedEx said they grounded their fleets of McDonnell Douglas MD-11s "out of an abundance of caution." And the Federal Aviation Administration's directive the following day sidelined the planes until inspection and correction of any problems. In January, UPS announced that its fleet of the cargo plans are now officially retired.

However, just last week, the MD-11 cargo planes returned to the air after the FAA said it approved Boeing's proposed fix for the planes. According to The Associated Press, the company developed a plan to replace a key spherical bearing and step up inspections of the parts that hold the engines to the wings.

The NTSB, the AP reported, has said that in 2011 Boeing had documented four previous failures of the part that helps secure the MD-11’s engines to the wings on three different planes, but at that point the plane manufacturer "determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition." These planes were built by McDonnell Douglas, which was later bought by Boeing.

U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, a Democratic congressman from Kentucky, called on the FAA to ground the MD-11 planes for good following the deadly UPS crash in Louisville, citing the amount of crashes involving the planes since 1990 and cargo carriers already retiring the aircraft from their fleets over "unacceptable risk."

Several lawsuits were since filed against UPS, General Electric, Boeing and the company that did maintenance on the plane. Those include a lawsuit filed by the widow of one of the plane's pilots.