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(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.

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(PEAKS ISLAND, Maine) — A Bentley University professor who was last seen on an island off the coast of Maine has been missing for nearly a week, according to the Maine Warden Service.

Wiley Davi, a 57-year-old English and media studies professor at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, was last seen on the evening of Nov. 15 on Maine’s Peak’s Island, the warden service said in a statement on Monday.

As of Thursday, the search continues for Davi, the university said in a statement to ABC News, who described them as a “longtime and respected professor and a friend to students.”

“Our hearts and minds are with Wiley and their loved ones and we are hoping and praying for Wiley’s safe return,” the university said in a statement to ABC News on Thursday.

The warden service said it is concentrating search efforts on the island’s trails and wooded areas, while the Maine Marine Patrol is searching the waters along the island.

While people are encouraged to stay off the island’s walking trails to “not interfere with searchers,” officials said residents are “encouraged to check any sheds or outbuildings on their property for Davi.”

A spokesperson for the warden service told Portland, Maine, ABC affiliate WMTW on Tuesday that the agency is looking at GPS tracking data from searchers on the ground and search dogs to see if they have missed any areas of Peaks Island in their efforts to find Davi.

Davi is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall, approximately 155 pounds and has gray hair, officials said.

Davi, who has been a professor at Bentley University for over 15 years, holds a doctorate in medieval and Renaissance studies from Tufts University, according to their LinkedIn profile. Their teaching interests “span the fields of writing, diversity, gender studies, leadership and service-learning,” their LinkedIn said.

It remains unclear why Davi was on Peaks Island. According to a local ferry service, the island is a neighborhood within the city of Portland that is home to “artists, retirees, commuters of all sorts and a substantial summer population.”

Officials said anyone with information on Davi or their whereabouts is urged to contact the Portland Police Department at 207-874-8479.

The Maine Warden Service did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on an update on the search for Davi.

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(CHICAGO) — The Department of Justice has abruptly moved to dismiss the indictment against two people accused last month of “ambushing” federal agents conducting an immigration sweep in Chicago, including a woman who was shot five times in the incident.

The government filed a motion on Thursday asking a federal judge to “dismiss the indictment and exonerate” Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz, who were involved in a collision with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Chicago on Oct. 4.

The incident set off street protests on Chicago’s Southwest Side. 

Martinez’s attorney, Christopher Parente, told ABC News on Thursday that he and his clients are relieved by the government’s decision.

“We appreciate the U.S. attorney being thoughtful in agreeing to dismiss this,” Parente said.

The case is scheduled for a status hearing at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, during which the government’s motion to dismiss will be heard.  

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — As the Justice Department’s criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey looks increasingly imperiled, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan and other DOJ officials are leveling unusual public attacks at the judge overseeing the case by mischaracterizing comments he made at a Wednesday hearing. 

“Personal attacks — like Judge Nachmanoff referring to me as a ‘puppet’ — don’t change the facts or the law,” Halligan said in an statement exclusively to the New York Post. 

“A federal judge should be neutral and impartial. Instead, this judge launched an outrageous and unprofessional personal attack yesterday in open court against US Attorney Lindsey Halligan. DOJ will continue to follow the facts and the law,” DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said in a statement posted to ‘X’ Thursday. 

The statements refer to an exchange between U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff and Comey’s attorney Michael Dreeben in which Nachmanoff questioned whether their position was that Halligan was serving as a “puppet” or a “stalking horse” for President Donald Trump in his orders for retribution against Comey. 

But Nachmanoff never asserted directly that Halligan was a “puppet,” and didn’t dispute in court when DOJ attorney Tyler Lemons flatly rejected that characterization. 

“So your view is that Ms. Halligan is a stalking horse or a puppet, for want of a better word, doing the president’s bidding?” Judge Nachmanoff asked Dreeben during the exchange.

“Well, I don’t want to use language about Ms. Halligan that suggests anything other than she did what she was told to do,” Dreeben replied. “The president of the United States has the authority to direct prosecutions. She worked in the White House. She was surely aware of the president’s directive.”

Comey was indicted in September on charges of lying to Congress after Trump forced out previous U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert and installed Halligan, a White House staffer with no prosecutorial experience, then called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to act “NOW!!!” to prosecute Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Rep. Adam Schiff. Comey has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

An attorney for Comey argued during Wednesday’s hearing that by replacing Siebert with his former staffer and lawyer, and publicly calling for his political foes to be charged, Trump was “manipulating the machinery of prosecution” and committing an “egregious violation of bedrock constitutional values.” 

Halligan also testified that the grand jury that indicted Comey voted to indict him on two of the three counts submitted in the original indictment, but that the final revised indictment reflecting the two counts Comey was ultimately charged with was not reviewed by the full grand jury — only by the jury foreperson and one other grand juror.

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(TITUSVILLE, Fla.) — Friends and family of Anna Kepner, the 18-year-old who mysteriously died aboard a cruise ship earlier this month, will gather at a Titusville, Florida, church on Thursday to remember the “bubbly” high school senior.

Kepner’s family asked mourners to wear colors, instead of black, to the celebration of life event “in honor of Anna’s bright and beautiful soul.” Instead of flowers at the service, the family said Kepner’s friends are encouraged to leave flowers on the teenager’s car.

The FBI is investigating Kepner’s Nov. 8 death on the Carnival Horizon. The Miami-Dade medical examiner has still not specified a cause or manner of death.

Kepner was found dead under a bed, wrapped in a blanket and covered by life vests, according to a security source briefed on the investigation.

Among the avenues investigators are looking at is whether there might have been some sort of altercation with her stepbrother prior to her death, the source told ABC News.

Investigators are also looking at other possibilities, including a medical emergency or an overdose, the security source said.

A filing in an unrelated family court matter noted Kepner’s stepsibling could face charges. Kepner’s stepmother — who was also on the cruise, along with her children and Kepner’s father — requested a delay in her custody hearing, saying, “The Respondent has been advised through discussions with FBI investigators and her attorneys, that a criminal case may be initiated against one of the minor children.”

Kepner was set to graduate from high school in May and was interested in joining the military, her family said.

“She loved being around people. She had that type of energy that just drew you in with her smile and the way she carried herself,” her family said in a statement.

“She filled the world with laughter, love, and light that reached everyone around her,” her obituary said. “Anna was pure energy: bubbly, funny, outgoing, and completely herself.”

ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Luke Barr and Alondra Valle contributed to this report.

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