US investigators combing Louisville’s runways recovered “multiple” fan-blade pieces from the left GE Aerospace turbofan of the UPS Boeing MD-11 Freighter that crashed on 5 November.
The investigative team has also downloaded data from cockpit voice and flight-data recorders recovered from the wreck, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said on 6 November.
During an inspection of Louisville International’s runway 17R hours after the crash, the team found “multiple pieces of engine fan blade, along with the main component of the… number one engine, which is on the left side of the aircraft,” Inman says, speaking from Louisville.
The left-side CF6 turbofan detached as the UPS jet was taking off from that runway the evening of 6 November, bound for Honolulu as flight 2976.
Inman says latest data yet obtained by the NTSB shows that the aircraft reached an altitude of 475ft and was flying at 183kt (339km/h) at 17:13 local time, moments before coming down.
Video shows the trijet then rolling left and ploughing into several businesses in an industrial neighbourhood immediately south of the runway, igniting a massive fireball.
The crash killed at least 12 people, including those on the ground and all three people aboard the MD-11F. Those three people included the captain, first officer and a relief pilot, UPS confirms. At least nine people are still unaccounted for, according to reports.
Overnight, investigators flew the MD-11F’s flight recorders to Washington, DC, and have since downloaded the recorders’ data.
“We consider this a good extraction with good data points, which means we will have even more information,” Inman says.
He confirms the aircraft, manufactured in 1991, had recently been parked in San Antonio for maintenance. Investigators are working to secure those records.
UPS told the NTSB that the jet underwent no maintenance immediately prior to its last flight, Inman adds.
