National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said “it’s been a very active day” during a press conference Thursday to update the investigation into the UPS MD-11 crash in Louisville, Kentucky.
Inman noted the NTSB has put together a multidisciplinary team and brought in additional specialists who can help piece together the situation that led to Tuesday’s deadly accident that killed at least 12 people and injured 15.
Inman said the Federal Aviation Administration, UPS, Independent Pilots Association, and Teamsters union, which represents the mechanics for UPS Boeing Corp., which manufactures the aircraft after a consolidation with McConnell Douglas and GE Aerospace, are all taking part in the probe.
“[The NTSB’s family assistance group] has been working to assist and inform these families and survivors,” Inman said. “They will continue to support all the families who lost loved ones and those that may be still missing throughout the entire investigation, both on scene and before we issue our investigative report. And let me stress one thing: Our first and foremost priority is the recovery of those who are still missing. This investigation is not impeding that in any way. They deserve to be treated with the dignity and respect that they earned.”
Inman stressed that the NTSB is also working very closely with the local authorities “to make sure that if there’s any identification of a survivor’s remains or anything like that, that is the first thing that takes priority [so we can] make sure we can bring closure to as many people as possible.”
Inman noted that prior to the briefing, he had met with the families who have lost a loved one on the ground and would later connect with the families of the three UPS crewmen aboard the downed aircraft.
The number of people working on the investigation grew overnight.
“Right now, the NTSB team is over 30 individuals,” said Inman. “We brought in an additional vehicle performance specialist and a materials engineer, and of course, they are being supported by dozens of individuals in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the country. We have no issue bringing in any resource that we need to make sure we have the right people in place while we are on the ground here.”
He said the ADS-B preliminary flight data information has been recovered and is being studied.
“These data points that were provided by the FAA showed the aircraft, for the last reporting time, was at 475 feet of altitude traveling at a speed of 183 knots,” said Inman. “This data point was collected at 5:13 and 32 seconds Eastern Standard Time on the night of the accident.”
Inman said the NTSB will take this information and compare it with that gleaned from the flight data recorder (FDR).
“And [there’s] other information that we receive that will help us prepare a timeline of exactly what occurred and what progression, what was known in the end of the cockpit or on the ground,” he said.
The FDR and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) were recovered on Wednesday and flown back to Washington, where they were disassembled at the NTSB recorders lab and the data extracted successfully.
NTSB investigator Chihoon Shin provided details on the recorder information.
“It had about 63 hours of data over 24 flights, which included the accident flight,” Shin said. “This FDR contained, according to records, about 420 parameters. Those parameters included altitude, airspeed, and engine information, as well as system statuses for the onboard systems installed.”
The CVR was also successfully downloaded. It contains about two hours of audio, which includes the accident flight. The NTSB’s CVR group will convene in the coming days to transcribe the recorded audio for the accident flight, but Inman stressed that information will not be made public out of respect to the families of the flight crew.
Nine people are reportedly still unaccounted for after the crash of the UPS freighter at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (KSDF) on Tuesday evening.
The three crewmembers of the MD-11 have been identified. UPS released a statement via social media this afternoon naming the crew: “It is with great sorrow that we share the names of the UPS pilots on board UPS Flight 2976. Captain Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt, and International Relief Officer Captain Dana Diamond were operating the flight.”
On Wednesday Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said at a media briefing that one of the victims is believed to be a child, who was with a family member running an errand at the auto yard near where the airplane crashed.
Local hospitals have treated at least 15 people who had burns or injuries from the blast and shrapnel as shredded metal rained down from the sky. As of Thursday morning, two individuals who were critically burned remain hospitalized.
Timeline of the Accident
According to the FAA, UPS Flight 2976 crashed around 5:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday. The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was headed to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL) in Honolulu and was carrying approximately 220,000 pounds of jet fuel.
Video captured by closed-circuit TV at the airport and the dashcam of an airport ground vehicle shows the cargo jet’s left wing at the engine junction was on fire as it moved down Runway 17R for takeoff.
The MD-11 has three engines—one on each wing and one on the tail. According to preliminary information released by the NTSB, the left engine, known as No. 1, disintegrated during the takeoff roll. A plume of fire erupted from the wing, and the engine separated from the aircraft. The engine cowling and engine were found on the right side of the runway.
Investigators on Wednesday performed a search for evidence during a foreign object debris (FOD) walk down the runways.
“This FOD walk occurred on Runway 17 left, or L, and [Runway] 17 right, or R,” said Inman. “During the FOD walk on 17R, we found multiple pieces of engine fan blades along with the main component of the No. 1 engine, which is on the left side of the aircraft. We have transferred all of those to a secured location for further examination, and we’ll be using that to further analyze any mechanical aspects.”
Maintenance Questions
The NTSB has learned that the aircraft was in San Antonio, Texas, for servicing approximately six weeks before the accident. The agency is collecting the records to see what type of maintenance or work was performed.
“We have a specific group that are experts in not only maintenance but also repair job cards and all the requirements of that,” Inman said. “We’re currently downloading that information and going back…even further from that to get additional pertinent details about certain inspections and checks based on the age of the aircraft. We will move forward, and we will look at every piece of maintenance that was done, even from the San Antonio time all the way to the date of the flight.
“We’re also pulling CCTV information from the field to be able to understand anything that was being done around the aircraft in the days leading up to the accident.”
Inman said there had been reports of maintenance being done on the airplane as it sat in Louisville, but UPS said that is not correct.
“Obviously, one of our jobs is to make sure we verify anything that we may learn through multiple sources,” he said. “But nothing to this point has been presented to us to dispute that. So our belief is that there was not a maintenance issue regarding that aircraft prior to the flight.”
