NTSB releases new images of UPS plane moments before crash
Fire and smoke mark where a UPS cargo plane crashed near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on November 04, 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky. Stephen Cohen/Getty Images
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Newly released photos included in a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report on the deadly UPS plane crash in Louisville show the moment the aircraft’s left engine came off during takeoff and ignited.
Federal investigators are focusing on metal fatigue cracks around the engine of the UPS plane that crashed on Nov. 5, killing 14 people, according to a new report by the NTSB.
In a preliminary report released Thursday, the engine is seen flying off the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter plane’s wing, going up into the air, before a burst of fire engulfs the plane.
The plane was departing Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, and headed to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, when the crash occurred.
The three crew members on board and 11 people on the ground were killed, officials said. Additionally, 23 people on the ground were injured, the NTSB said.
The newly released images in the NTSB report, taken from an airport surveillance video, show the left engine and left pylon separate from the left wing. A fire ignited on the left engine as it went up and over the fuselage, before it hit the ground, the NTSB said.
A fire also ignited “near the area of the left pylon attachment to the wing, which continued until ground impact,” the report stated.
The plane only got about 30 feet above the ground before it crashed in a ball of fire, impacting a storage yard and two buildings, according to the NTSB report.
Upon inspection following the crash, the left engine pylon showed signs of fatigue cracks and over-stress failure, according to the report.
The parts with fatigue cracking were last inspected in October 2021, according to the report. The plane had completed 21,043 flights, and those parts were not scheduled to be inspected until the plane hit 28,000 flights, the report said.
In the wake of the crash, federal authorities are prohibiting all operators of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 planes from flying the aircraft until they are inspected.
The emergency directive from the Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday was “prompted by an accident where the left-hand engine and pylon detached from the airplane during takeoff,” FAA documents said. “The cause of the detachment is currently under investigation. The unsafe condition could result in loss of continued safe flight and landing.”
The NTSB noted in its report that a similar crash involving this type of plane killed over 270 people in Chicago in 1979. American Airlines Flight 191 crashed into an open field after the left engine and pylon assembly and part of the left wing separated from the plane during takeoff, the report said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(EDISTO ISLAND, S.C.) — A South Carolina judge’s house went up in flames Sunday, hospitalizing three and destroying the home.
Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein was walking her dogs on the beach in Edisto Island, S.C., about an hour south of Charleston, when the fire began, according to officials. Her husband, former state Sen. Arnold Goodstein, their son, Arnold Goodstein III, and one other occupant were forced to jump from the burning building from an elevated first floor to escape the blaze, officials said.
The three occupants were rescued by kayak from the home’s backyard due to the area’s marshy terrain, Colleton County Fire-Rescue told ABC News. One occupant was airlifted to Medical University of South Carolina hospital in Charleston and the other two were taken there via ground transportation, according to Colleton County Fire-Rescue.
The current condition of the victims is not known.
The South Carolina Supreme Court said in a statement that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) responded to the scene and is investigating the cause of the fire. “Local law enforcement partners have been alerted and asked to provide extra patrols and security. The Judicial Branch will remain in close communication with SLED,” the statement added.
“SLED’s investigation is active and ongoing,” the agency told ABC News.
Last month, Goodstein blocked the South Carolina Election Commission from providing the Department of Justice with millions of voter files that included personal names, addresses, driver’s license numbers and social security numbers, according to court documents.
President Trump issued an executive order in March prohibiting non-citizens from registering to vote, leading the DOJ to request the information of more than 3.3 million registered voters in South Carolina. Goodstein’s decision, however, was reversed a few days later by the State Supreme Court, according to court documents.
Goodstein was first elected to her Circuit Court judgeship in 1998, according to the South Carolina Judicial Branch.
Travelers walk through Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Nov. 11, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — At least 878 flights were canceled in the United States early on Wednesday, with the departures from the busy hubs of Chicago, Denver and Atlanta leading the list of the most cancellations, according to a flight-data tracker.
Another 404 flights had been delayed as of about 5 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware.
Chicago O’Hare International topped the tracker’s list of cancellations, with 44 as of about 4 a.m. local time. Next was Denver with 43 and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson with 37.
Wednesday’s flight cancellations appeared set to continue a dayslong streak of chaos at American airports, which were operating under duress amid a federal government shutdown.
The Federal Aviation Administration continues to limit capacity at 40 major U.S. airports. Many federal employees, including Transportation Security Administration staffers, were working without pay as the partisan impasse dragged on in Washington.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The largest federal workers’ union this week threw its support behind a Republican government funding bill, ratcheting up pressure on Democrats.
But many of the top labor unions told ABC News that they continue to back the strategy taken up by Democrats, breaking with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents hundreds of thousands of federal workers losing out on pay and staring down the threat of layoffs.
Many labor unions, a key bloc within the Democratic Party, support the push for an extension of Obamacare subsidies and remain eager to fight a president they view as an adversary of workers, some labor analysts and union officials said.
Jaime Contreras, an executive vice president at the 185,000-member Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, said he sympathized with the challenges faced by federal workers but he disagreed with AFGE’s approach.
“They have to do what they have to do for their members,” Contreras told ABC News.
But, he added: “It’s a false choice in my opinion to say we need to give up affordable healthcare for millions and millions of Americans in order to bring federal workers back to work.”
SEIU 32BJ represents about 2,400 federal contractors who work as security officers, food-services workers and other employees, meaning they run the risk of missing out on backpay when the government reopens, Contreras said.
“These workers are bearing the brunt of this shutdown,” Contreras said, later adding: “We’re urging our Democratic friends to hold the line.”
The stay-the-course approach maintained by key labor organizations has likely eased the pressure faced by Democratic lawmakers in the aftermath of the AFGE announcement, some labor analysts told ABC News.
“The federal unions aren’t the biggest players,” Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told ABC News.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who leads the nation’s largest labor federation, made up of unions representing nearly 15 million members, faulted President Donald Trump for what she considers an attempt to divide workers.
“As federal workers miss paychecks and line up at food banks, President Trump is more focused on pitting workers against each other than ending the shutdown,” Shuler told ABC News in a statement. “It’s time to fund the government, fix the health care crisis, and put working people first.”
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed Democrats for the impasse, saying while most workers might be able to miss one paycheck, “none of them can get through two paychecks.”
“If Democrats don’t get their act together very quickly, you’re going to see huge problems,” Duffy said.
The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s biggest labor union representing almost 3 million members, stands by a statement earlier this month that supports addressing healthcare and government funding, an NEA official told ABC News.
United Steelworkers International President David McCall told ABC News he supports a solution “both prioritizing affordable health care and funding the essential services our government provides.”
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers referred ABC News to previous statements voicing similar sentiment.
“The Trump administration is putting huge, huge pressure on the federal unions,” John Logan, a professor of U.S. labor history at San Francisco State University, told ABC News. “Large parts of the rest of the labor movement are crying out for the Democrats to fight against the Trump administration and not give up.”
“Despite these cracks — which are understandable — the labor movement is fairly united in its position on the shutdown,” Logan added.
AFGE did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The union drew headlines on Monday when its president, Everett Kelley, called for a “clean continuing resolution,” a position in line with Republicans who have declined to negotiate with Democrats over healthcare and other topics until after lawmakers vote to reopen the government.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Kelley said in a statement. “Today I’m making mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today.”
To be sure, at least one major union has sided with AFGE. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has urged lawmakers to pass a clean continuing resolution, reiterating his position on Thursday in remarks made alongside top Trump administration officials at the White House.
“Do not put working people in the middle of a problem. They should not be in there,” said O’Brien, who last year became the first Teamsters union president to speak at a Republican National Convention.
The Teamsters did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
For his part, Trump on Thursday night called on Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to pass the Republican funding bill and reopen the government.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” Trump posted.
The government shutdown, which entered its 30th day on Friday, appears unlikely to end anytime soon. Senate Democrats have voted 13 times to reject a Republican funding bill, and the upper chamber is out on recess until next week.
