12 Dead in Fiery UPS Plane Crash — Everything We Know

The impact and intensity of the wreckage. of the charred wreckage is unlike. anything I've ever seen before and. certainly nothing that I ever want to. see again. >> We have shocking details about a large. UPS cargo plane that crashed during. takeoff from an airport in Louisville, Kentucky. We are getting our first. investigative clues as to what may have. happened to cause the jet to crash and. explode, killing at least 12 people, including a child. We're going to take a.

closer look at the latest information. and what happens next with former CIA. and FBI agent Tracy Walder, who was at. the Muhammad Ali airport in Louisville. that day. Welcome to Sidebar, presented. by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. By the way, if you're a supporter of. what we do here at Law and Crime at. Sidebar, have you ever wondered how. we're able to share so many clips from. the biggest cases so quickly? Here's a. secret. It's called OpusClip. This is an.

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their ideas, too. And this is the most. powerful tool there is to help you edit. like a pro. So go to opus.pro/sidebar. to create your videos today. Okay, we're. doing something a little bit different. than we usually do on Sidebar. This is. not the typical story that we cover. Then again, this is not the typical. story itself. This is such a tragedy. We. are talking about what we know so far. about the UPS plane crash in Kentucky. And you've likely seen the shocking. videos of this. This jet trying to gain. altitude, but instead crashes just.

outside the airport fence. It is. horrible. The plane that was full of. fuel for its planned trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, exploded. It exploded into. flames and it took hours to extinguish. There was this massive cloud of smoke. that could be seen for miles. In fact, fire officials told local outlet WLKY. that it could take a week or longer to. put out any hot spots. And we now know. that at least 12 people have died. And.

first responders have switched this from. a rescue mission to one of recovery. So. the question now is what happened? What. could have turned what is simply an. everyday transport flight into just this. awful, awful scene that stretches more. than half a mile? Was it mechanical. failure? Was it pilot error? Was it. sabotage? We're going to talk about it. But first, you should know that this. global shipping company, UPS, it doesn't. just have the, you know, the iconic. brown trucks that are spread out across.

the United States. They have a fleet of. cargo planes that transport hundreds of. thousands of packages every single day. The company's aviation hub, UPS. Worldport, it is located in Louisville, Kentucky at the Muhammad Ali. International Airport. And that is where. this happened. That is where this. tragedy struck on Tuesday. Now, here's. the thing to take into consideration, too. According to reporting from the. Associated Press, this crash was. devastating, not only for the actual. plane itself, but for the surrounding.

area. It caused a ripple effect in the. industrial area on the other side of. that airfield fence. We're talking. explosions at other businesses. Kentucky. Petroleum Recycling, GradeA Auto Parts, which is a salvage yard. And then you. had Kentucky Governor Andy Basher, who. issued a state of emergency in the. aftermath of this crash, telling. reporters that the child who died was. with a parent at that auto parts. business. Can you imagine that? Can you. imagine that happening there? It's just. unbelievably.

sad. It is unbelievably tragic. Now, some people who had been on the ground, they were fortunate enough to go to the. hospital, they were discharged, they. were released, but there are others who. went into the hospital and they are. still in critical condition and more. than a dozen people are still. unaccounted for. That's according to the. governor. Now, three people were. actually aboard the plane when it tried. to lift off on Tuesday, again, bound for. Hawaii. According to NTSB investigators, one of the three engines actually fell.

off the wing, that leading to just a. catastrophic chain reaction. After being cleared for takeoff, a large. plume of fire in the area of the left. wing occurred during the takeoff roll. The plane lifted off and gained gained. enough altitude to clear the fence at. the end of runway 17R. Shortly after clearing that fence, it. made impact with structures and the.

terrain off of the airport property. A post impact fire ensued which covers. approximately almost a half of a mile. And we have viewed airport CCTV security. coverage which shows the left engine. detaching from the wing during the. takeoff roll. This and other videos along with. evidence we are finding are very. valuable asset to our investigators and.

helping us hone further which areas we. were going to be focusing on as we move. into further days of the investigation. NTSB board member Ton Edund told. reporters on Wednesday that dozens of. the agency's workers are now a part of. this investigation and he talked about. the different groups being formed to. focus on certain aspects of this. So for. example, one group is going to focus on. what happened before the crash, right? Who were the people on board? What were. they doing in the days leading up to. this tragedy? What were the details of. this particular flight? You have another. group that's going to document the.

accident scene, try to calculate all the. trajectories and angles that will be so. important to figuring out what happened. And plus, there's a group to look at. maintenance logs possibly going back. months. Now, importantly, first. responders, they also recovered the. plane's black box on Wednesday. That's. huge. >> Our investigative teams we anticipate. will be here at least a week, if not. longer. Our mission again is not. understand not only what happened, but. why it happened and recommend changes to. prevent it from happening again. We will.

not be determining the probable cause. while we are here on scene. Nor will we. speculate about what may have caused. this. Now, since we're just beginning. with the uh the investigation, we don't. have more factual information to give. you at this time, but we believe over. the next couple days, we'll be able to. avail further for you. Uh I do want to. also mention this just happened in the. last basically 30 minutes. We have. identified the cockpit voice recorder. and the flight data recorder. This is.

what is commonly referred to as a black. box. Uh we have investigators now that. have located it. Uh as you can imagine. it is in. it's it's suffered some heat uh not. intrusion but heat around it. These. recorders are built for that. And just. before we get the question, uh, these. recorders were updated from its original. manufacturer. They are L3 Harris. installed at two different dates. We're. going back and verifying that, but we. feel comfortable once we get these to.

our lab in DC that we will be able to. get a good readout of the applicable. data, and that will be yet another point. of information that will really help us. understand what happened during this. point of flight. Governor Basher along. with the city's mayor, they had a chance. to visit this crash site. They said that. this devastation is unbelievable. As. governor, I've seen a lot. I've had to order freezer trucks in a. pandemic. I've walked the line of an F4.

tornado through my dad's hometown. I've. seen towns. hit by flooding we'd only describe as. biblical. And what this scene is is um. violent. Where the plane hit um at best is um. destroyed. What you see are mangled remnants of. what was in its path completely burnt.

and blackened. So to talk about this. investigation, what we may be seeing, the lines of inquiry that officials have. been handing hand handing down right. now, I want to bring in a former CIA. special operations officer and FBI. special agent, author of The Unexpected. Spy, a national security contributor on. NewsNation, frequent contributor here on. Sidebar, Tracy Walder, who by the way. just so happened to be at the Muhammad. Ali International Airport on that day.

Now Tracy, it was before all of this. happened though, right? >> Actually, just before to be completely. honest with you, I think I had left. about 45 minutes. The the car, excuse. me, had picked me up about 45 minutes. prior uh to to this happening. So, I I. didn't miss it, I guess, by a whole lot. >> That's incredible. Um, you know, look, I. I I wanted your perspective for a number. of reasons. One of the reasons is. because official officials during a news. conference on Wednesday, they talked. about the FBI sending in agents to help.

at the crash site. Um, have you ever. been part of an investigation like this? A and what could the FBI provide? What. resources could the FBI provide here? >> So, I I personally actually have not. been a part. Typically, when the FBI. comes to uh an investigation like that, a lot of what they're going to bring in. is are members of their evidence. response team. And that is because they. want to determine whether or not this is. criminal. Um this is technically not.

just happening to the state of Kentucky. Uh this is something that is occurring. at an airport. Therefore, the FBI and. all of their resources are typically. used in something like this. It's not. unusual, but they want to ensure that. there wasn't any kind of act of. sabotage, if you will, or any type of. criminal event that occurred as a result. of this. >> And what would they be looking for? What. would be a clear sign of sabotage? Would. it be something, you know, I mentioned. before that there there are groups going.

to be looking into everything that. happened before the crash, who was on. board, maintenance logs? H how in your. experience have you seen what what is. evidence of potential sabotage? >> So this is going to be actually very. similar to what we saw in that Air India. crash a few months ago I believe where. there was just one survivor and that. they're starting to think may have been. an act of sabotage. One of the things. that they're going to do that I think. people forget about is they are going to. be looking into the communications of. the pilots and the crew prior to them.

actually getting onto that plane and. getting the plane ready because they. want to determine what was their mindset. like. Was this just a normal day and. something catastrophic unfortunately. happened or was this something more? Were they communicating something? Um, so that's one thing they actually will. be looking into rather than just the. plane itself. Um, if you will. Also, I. believe the FBI really will be looking. at these maintenance logs of the flight. It's I'm understanding just based on. what they have said, uh, that there were.

no maintenance. There was no maintenance. that was done to this plane. It didn't. need any um, prior to it taking off. So, they will be looking at that. Also, they're going to be looking at. communications um, with ATC or the air. traffic controller. uh what did those. look like? A lot of what the FBI will be. focusing on is sort of I guess those. digital forensics um if you will because. it's going to take quite some time to. recreate the crash uh itself. >> and who had like like you said who had. access to the plane because an engine.

falling off the wing is such a a an. outrageous thing to think about and how. does that happen and if anybody you know. had access to it in some way. The uh. NTSB the FAA they are in charge of this. investigation. This is a massive. undertaking. This is a massive scene. I. talked about the ripple effects, how it, you know, hit two other businesses. Generally speaking, when you have these. different agencies and all of these. different uh officials a part of this, how do they make sure there's the proper. line of communication that things stay.

organized, that nothing slips through. the cracks? Is it a good thing to have. so many eyes on this or can it be a. challenge? >> So, yes and no. Right. And I think that. is the issue. A lot of times what. they're going to do in a situation like. this is set up almost a temporary office. if you will, probably out of the airport. where they are all physically working. together. That's actually a good thing. because you want to keep these lines of. communication open like you said, so. people aren't, you know, doubling. efforts that don't need to necessarily. be doubled. That's very inefficient. Or.

investigating the wrong thing or not. talking to each other when they do find. a piece of intelligence that's needed. So, a lot of times they will kind of set. up these temporary task force centers, if you will. They're mobile. Um, and. that's probably what they are doing, although obviously I don't know for. sure. They're probably operating out of. the airport itself. A. >> and as they're collecting all of this. potential evidence, the debris and. materials and again massive undertaking. there. Generally speaking, h have you. would would it strike you as odd if this.

was an a deliberate act? If there was a. crime here, if this was an act of. sabotage, have you seen something like. this before? Um, you know, allegedly. targeting a a a transport plane like. this? I mean, would it make sense that. this could potentially be uh a criminal. act? Have you seen something like that. before? >> Listen, Jesse, anything's possible. Um. gosh, I do not recall how many years ago. it was, but there was a flight actually. in Europe where the pilot deliberately. flew it into um a mountain and killed.

everyone on board. Um and then also you. have that Air India flight as well. So I. don't want to say that this has never. happened before. Obviously it's rare and. as you pointed out this was a plane that. in my understanding it didn't need any. maintenance prior to it taking off. At. least that's what the NTSB has said. Um. and so yes, an engine just seemingly. falling off as well as damage to the. wing, I think, um is catastrophic in. nature. Also, we have to look at, you. know, the fuel in my opinion played a.

huge role uh in the I guess essentially. trail of fire uh that you see. This was. a plane that was filled to the brim with. fuel because this is a longhaul flight, right? Um, and it's very similar if you. saw, you know, the 9/11 hijackers. They. wanted cross-country flights because. they knew more fuel creates more um of. an explosion. But again, that's all just. hypothesizing, right? This really just. could have been an unfortunate. connection um of events. So, I don't. want to say I've never seen this before.

Um, but yes, it's it's definitely rare. And. >> let me provide a little bit more areas. of context here. So according to the. NTSB at this point in time they're. saying the government shutdown had not. affected the number of people in the air. traffic control tower. You know. obviously that is a question that's come. up. You have a retired uh UPS captain. Norman Cight Jr. told WLKY that the. cargo plane the one that we're talking. about it was the third largest aircraft. in the company's fleet. It was one of. the oldest. It was built in 1991. He.

also told the outlet that it was one of. the most reliable planes they had. You. know, Tracy, interesting, right? When. you think about the plane's age, it's. catching a lot of people's attention. How far back in the records will. investigators go in terms of maintenance. log and previously documented issues? And we talk about how long this. investigation can be? Um, does the FBI. go through that as well? I mean, what. can we expect there given the age of the. plane? >> So, that's going to probably mostly be.

done by the NTSB. Um, but I think that. they are going to go all the way back to. actually the assembly line of that. airplane. So, probably even pre 1991. I. believe 1991 was the year was actually. put into service. So, that's the year it. started flying. Obviously, the building. started before that. I think they're. going to go all the way back. I think. they have to in an event like this. And. yes, it is a massive plane. Again, it's. going to Hawaii, right? With a maximum. amount probably of cargo on board.

Listen, it is reliable, but reliable. things break uh over time, right? This. is a plane that has been in service for. quite some time and didn't have, at. least from my understanding, a massive. history of maintenance. I know I think. it was in San Antonio in September uh. for maintenance. I I could be wrong, but. that was something that I had read as. well, but no, I guess huge history of. any kinds of maintenance issues, but. yes, they're going to go back to the. assembly of that airplane. And you know, one of the most disturbing aspects of. this um is that officials, Tracy, they.

haven't released the identities of the. victims yet. Uh ABC News reports that. the coroner is still trying to identify. some of the remains because of the. horrific conditions of the bodies. I. mean, that could be a challenge. I do. wonder in these kinds of scenes. >> It's going to be a huge challenge. Obviously UPS would know who was. obviously flying that plane, who was. crewing that plane based on passenger. manifests, right? But then you need to. be sure that those people actually got.

on the plane. Um because you know things. happen, right? People sub in for other. individuals and it it happens. This. isn't a passenger payload kind of plane, right? This is a cargo payload kind of. plane and those are sort of I guess. viewed differently, if you will. But. yes, as I mentioned before, the huge. amount of fuel um on this plane is. absolutely going to make it very very. difficult to identify individuals who. were on that plane as well as. individuals who were victims on the.

ground. >> But I will say word of who's been. impacted, it is starting to trickle out. For example, there's a GoFundMe right. now for a man named Matt. And according. to the fundraiser organizer Fawn Fawn. Armstrong, Matt was severely burned when. he was caught in the fireball. He. survived, but according to Fawn, he has. burns on 95% of his body. The fund has. raised more than $44,000 so far. Um, and. you know, based on prior crash. investigations, it has been predicted. here that this could be a year, Tracy, a.

year before we really have concrete. answers from the NTSB. Maybe, you know, the FBI sooner. I mean, why so long? Does that make sense to you? >> It does. Um, and it's, you know, similar. to when we look at just really a lot of. cases. Uh, I think sometimes TV and pop. culture plays a role in people wanting. these immediate answers. But to do these. things properly, it does take a great. deal of time, particularly when you have. essentially everything in its path. that's really been incinerated because.

you have a massive arson investigation. now. And that takes some time as well. And I feel awful for the victims. I. think those are the ones that ultimately. suffer as a result of this, I guess, waiting game, um, if you will. But I. think it's unfortunately very normal for. an investigation like this to take. place. And it's horrific that people. were injured to that extent and that the. loss of life. I think it's important to. note there are a lot of warehouses that. surround this airport. I mean, I saw. them yesterday. This airport sort of.

doesn't exist in this bubble of just. fields. And so it is pretty horrific the. the trail of destruction that was left. >> Would we hear something from the FBI. sooner? Would they come to the. conclusion that there wasn't a criminal. act and maybe make an announcement. before the NTSB uh continues their. investigation to find out what the. mechanical cause might have been or. other cause? Would we hear from the FBI. before a year? >> Yes, we we should typically in something. like that. Yes. Now, will it be in a.

matter of days? I personally don't think. so. Although I understand that that's. something that people want, it would be. a matter of probably months um where the. FBI would make that a determination. whether this is uh criminal. investigation or a mechanical. investigation. >> Now, we are putting uh the the GoFundMe. up there as well. And one other a couple. other links I want to just mention if if. you're interested in contributing and. helping. So, Governor Basher previously. established the Team Kentucky Emergency. Relief Fund to help people during.

tragedies. He said Wednesday that money. donated to the fund right now is going. to go toward helping people and. businesses that were impacted by this. crash. GoFundMe has also created a. centralized hub for verified fundraisers. that are connected to the plane crash. If you want to contribute there, I'm. going to put the all the links there. Um. but really I I know there's a lot of. families, a lot of businesses, a lot of. people affected who are in need right. now. It's a horrible situation. Um, Tracy, I really appreciate you taking. the time um and explaining what we may. uh expect uh in the months to come. Just.

a really, really horrible situation. But. thank you so much. >> Thank you, Jesse. >> And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so. much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple. Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should. get your podcasts. You can follow me on. X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll. speak to you next time. [Music].