UPS MD-11 Crash at Louisville - Real ATC Communication

Tuesday 4 November 2025, just after five in the evening at Louisville, Kentucky. UPS flight 2976, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter bound for Honolulu, takes off from runway 17R at UPS Worldport, and right after rotation its left engine and pylon come off the wing. This is the real tower and ground recording from the FAA, with the airplane on the map from its ADS-B and flight data recorder, the cockpit callouts from the NTSB transcript, and what investigators have found so far. Chapters 0:00 What happened 1:09 Runway 17R 3:02 Standby 5:54 Unknown persons on board 7:46 4 November 2025 · 17:13 7:57 NTSB investigative hearing · May 2026 8:11 What changed Sources • Audio: FAA (Louisville tower, ground and crash phone recordings, via NTSB public docket DCA26MA024; public domain) • ATC audio: FAA via NTSB docket DCA26MA024 · CVR text: NTSB transcript (audio never released) · Investigation open, no final report yet • Track: FAA ADS-B and the flight data recorder (NTSB docket) · Other airplanes, vehicles and Air 30: positions approximate, from the radio · Crash phone time approximate · Map © MapTiler © OpenStreetMap contributors • N259UP · Photo: Hamproductions · CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons) • Airport surveillance video (UPS), frames by the NTSB · public domain (Wikimedia Commons) • Thumbnail: N259UP cutout · Photo: Colin Brown · CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons) • Licences: CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Wyngx FM: eavesdropping on pilots. The full investigations live on Wyngx.