The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed it is investigating why doomed UPS Flight 2976 received maintenance work in San Antonio for six weeks before it crashed after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Nov. 4.
“We have actually started to pull those records down,” NTSB member Todd Inman said during the independent federal organization’s second media briefing on Nov. 6.
“We have a specific group that has experts in not only maintenance but repair [and] job cards and all of the requirements of that. We are currently downloading that information and going back,” Inman said. “We will actually, as part of the investigative process, we will go back even further from that to get additional pertinent details about certain inspections and checks based on the age of the aircraft.”
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11, manufactured in 1991, was headed from Louisville, Kentucky, to Honolulu with three crew members on board when the left engine detached from the plane’s wing during takeoff on Tuesday.
The crash killed at least 13 people, including a child.
The NTSB plans to review surveillance camera footage and every maintenance item performed from the time the plane left San Antonio until the crash in Kentucky.
“We’ve queried and UPS has told us that at this time, there were [sic] no maintenance work done on the aircraft in question immediately prior the flight that would delay it in any way shape or form,” Inman said after being questioned if the engine was being worked on earlier in the day.
Inman did not reveal timetables of when—or if—the plane had maintenance work done that day or week. He only shared that maintenance work was not done “immediately” before takeoff.
“Our belief is today, that there was not a maintenance issue regarding that aircraft prior to the flight subject,” Inman added.
The Epoch Times reached out to UPS to ask what type of maintenance work the plane received while in San Antonio.
The global shipping company did not comment and directed The Epoch Times to the media section of its website, which has no mention any maintenance work in San Antonio.
The NTSB is also reviewing if the plane was swapped out on the day of flight.
Inman speculated that if the plane was changed, it would have been a slow process to move cargo from one aircraft to another.
Preliminary flight data recovered from the black boxes showed that the UPS plane was at an altitude of 475 feet, traveling 210 miles per hour (183 knots) at 5:13 EST moments before it cleared a fence but then hit Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts.
NTSB investigators successfully downloaded two hours of audio from the cockpit voice recorder. It plans to release the transcript in the coming days.
The FBI has begun examining debris reported by people in the area after the local government set up a portal for reporting.
The Epoch Times can exclusively confirm that the FBI followed up on a report of several white mailer bags, bent aluminum with burn marks and numbered tags, which were found in an industrial center located nearly half a mile away from Grade A Auto Parts.
As investigators probe what led to the crash, UPS Executive Vice President Nando Cesarone released the names of their employees who lost their lives.
“Words can’t express the sorrow we feel over the heartbreaking Flight 2976 accident,” Cesarone said in a Nov. 6 statement. “It’s with great sorrow that we share the names of the UPS pilots on board UPS Flight 2976. Captain Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt, and International Relief Officer Captain Dana Diamond were operating the flight.”
Cesarone added, “Our hearts go out to every UPSer who has been impacted and all in our Louisville community—supporting you and ensuring you receive the care and resources you need is our priority.”
The recovery mission continued at the crash site on Thursday.
Nine individuals remain unaccounted for, according to Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency that will provide additional resources to the scene.
A vigil to honor the lives lost is scheduled for Thursday evening at the Local 89 Union Hall on Taylor Boulevard in Louisville.
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