WASHINGTON (WDRB) — The National Transportation Safety Board kicked off two days of investigative hearings Tuesday in Washington as part of the agency's investigation into Louisville's deadly UPS plane crash.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo plane, built in 1991, went down around 5:15 p.m. Nov. 4, 2025, after its left wing caught fire. The NTSB says the left engine and pylon separated after the takeoff rotation.
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. Twenty-three other people were injured.
The hearings will examine why an engine flew off the plane and why Boeing didn't address an underlying flaw sooner. The NTSB will hear from witnesses about what led up to UPS Flight 2976 crashing just after takeoff.
NTSB Preliminary report | Victims identified | What's next
The first day of hearings focused on inspections, maintenance and safety reporting. The NTSB heard from NTSB staff, UPS, the FAA, Boeing, labor unions and the company that worked on the plane shortly before the crash.
"Please know: Your loved ones are the reason we're here. We want to find out what happened," Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said as she addressed families during her opening remarks.
The first few hours revealed new details, including that the ill-fated plane was cleared for flight after a fuel leak sidelined the crew's original plane, investigators learned. Among the many hundreds of pages of interview transcripts released Tuesday by the NTSB, one said that during the second plane's pre-flight inspection, the flight crew shared good-natured banter with the maintenance team about "meeting again" so soon.
Investigators said after the crash, they found records of 10 previous flaws in the same key parts that help secure engines to wings of other similar planes, and most of them were never reported to the FAA.
Tuesday's hearing focused on why no government officials or industry experts spotted the concerning trend and took action to prevent it before the crash. Investigators also released more than 2,000 pages of related documents.
FAA and UPS officials said the reports they did get about problems related to the spherical bearings that have been a focus of the crash investigation may not have included enough information. UPS's David Springer said Boeing's service letters made the bearing problem "sound almost benign" and didn't mention any of the collateral damage that could be caused to the lugs that attach the engine to the wing.
"I think if we would have known that at UPS, I think we would have asked a lot of different questions over the years," Springer said.
Dramatic images the NTSB released after the crash showed the engine detaching as flames erupted on the wing. The plane was already ablaze as it briefly got airborne, leaving behind trails of smoke.
Examining the wreckage, investigators found cracks in some of the parts that held the engine to the wing, the NTSB said. Those cracks hadn’t been caught in regular maintenance, which raised questions about the adequacy of the maintenance schedule. The last time those key engine mount parts were examined closely was in October 2021, and the plane wasn’t due for another detailed inspection for roughly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings.
The hearings at the NTSB headquarters involve rounds of questions and answers among board members, investigators, and representatives of Boeing, UPS, the mechanics’ union and other parties.
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.
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.
The agency's final report likely won't be ready until more than a year after the crash because the agency will look at every potential factor.
The second day of hearings will shift to the design of the pylon, the structure that connects the engine to the wing.
IMAGES | UPS plane crash sparks massive plume of smoke across Louisville area
NTSB's preliminary crash report
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 UPS cargo plane was nearly airborne when a bell sounded in the cockpit, investigators 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.
The NTSB said Tuesday the separated left engine and pylon were found adjacent to the runway, while the plane's landing gear landed on a building's roof just south of the runway, impacting buildings and the ground.
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 NTSB preliminary report on the crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville, Ky. on Nov. 4, 2025. Still images from an airport surveillance video showing the left engine and left pylon separation from the left wing. (Source: UPS via NTSB)
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.
MD-11 planes return to the air
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."
Lawsuits mount
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.
Donna Diamond, the widow of Capt. Dana Diamond, said negligence took the love of her life away from her. In late February, she filed a lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court against Boeing, General Electric and VT San Antonio Aerospace, Inc. — the company that did maintenance on the plane weeks before the crash.
Just last week, Sean Garber, the owner of Grade A Auto Parts — where 12 employees and customers were killed when the plane crashed into the business — filed a lawsuit against UPS, Boeing, General Electric and several other companies.
Garber said he waited months before filing suit because he hoped the companies involved would "do right" by the people affected by the crash.
The plane crashed directly on top of Garber's scrap yard's checkout area, killing three of Garber's employees and nine of his customers.
Garber said he spent months trying to resolve issues privately through attorneys, but said those discussions never brought closure.
Garber also criticized UPS' response to businesses and families impacted by the crash. His suit is one of 15 new lawsuits were filed May 7 in Jefferson Circuit Court on behalf of more than 100 people seeking damages after the crash.
Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuits are families of the 15 people who died, those who were injured from the path of the crash and nine local businesses that were destroyed.
In a written statement, UPS said its focus "continues to be on supporting those affected and working with the National Transportation Safety Board as the investigation continues."
This story will be updated.
Copyright 2026 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
