On Nov. 4, 2025, at 5:14 p.m., UPS Flight 2976, a United Parcel Service cargo plane taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport bound for Honolulu, crashed after getting just 100 feet off the ground.

The left engine of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 detached from the jet, according to preliminary findings from the National Transportation Safety Board. The result was what officials described as a half-mile path of "catastrophic" destruction as more than 200,000 pounds of jet fuel caught fire and engulfed the plane, killing the flight crew of three and 11 other people on the ground as it skidded through an industrial district. At least two businesses were destroyed.

Dozens of fire crews from around the Louisville metro area responded to the blaze, which took more than 30 hou

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