Lift, then loss

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 17th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the risks of commercial aviation.

Last November, a UPS cargo plane crashed on takeoff in Louisville. All three crew members and eleven people on the ground died in the wreckage. The crash forced many in aviation to confront a familiar truth: that risk is part of the job.

REICHARD: Some are now asking themselves if or when they will return to flight. 

WORLD associate correspondent Clint Armani has the story.

CLINT ARMANI: On the evening of November 4th, Charlie Klap was studying in his fraternity house. Suddenly, emergency notifications began blowing up his phone.

KLAP: I don’t think a lot of people knew what was happening because a lot of people were still going to and from class.

But then his fraternity brothers noticed something strange in the air. 

KLAP: I could smell like, just like burning rubber

Charlie opened his window.

KLAP: Nobody really knew what happened, they just saw smoke and flames

Friends working near the airport started texting him. They saw the plane.

AUDIO: [Sound of explosion]

KLAP: Somebody sent a video of the rear end of the plane going down the runway, and from that I could tell it was a MD-11.

Charlie knows airplanes. He’s a private pilot currently working on his instrument rating at nearby Bowman Field. His dad and brother are pilots too.

KLAP: My dad used to fly the MD-11.

Charlie and his younger brother, Julian, are members of Flight Club 502, a non-profit youth aviation organization. Julian is a high school junior and volunteers at the club. He has several hours of flight training towards his private pilot license. Charlie says Julian was at the club when the MD-11 crashed.

KLAP: He said he was out in the parking lot and he could see pieces of destroyed packages just scattered, kind of under the line of smoke, so the wind was carrying it across Louisville.

UPS Flight 2976 was a Boeing MD-11 aircraft, loaded for a long flight to Honolulu during peak cargo season. 

According to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report, a witness in the control tower described the takeoff roll as normal. The climb-out was not. Very shortly after lift off, the left engine and the pylon that attached it to the wing ripped away from the aircraft—igniting multiple fires. The plane barely cleared the airport perimeter fence at the end of Runway 17 Right.

NEWSCASTERS: With its wing on fire, the jet struggles to climb. / The report says the MD-11 plane only made it about 30 feet off the ground before crashing into an industrial neighborhood.

KLAP: It was almost ominous, cause the sun was going down, but when you look out over campus there’s just this dark cloud, and it was just eerie.

With oily smoke still in the air, Charlie called his dad but couldn’t reach him. His dad was in Europe in the middle of another trip. Then, he called his mom. When he told her that the plane was an MD-11, she was distraught. Charlie’s dad used to fly that very same route on the MD-11 many times. He tried his dad again…

KLAP: And I didn’t hear from him for like two hours. And then my mom was calling me back and forth, nonstop. Finally, my dad gets back. He didn’t even know it happened. He had no idea.

Crashes are especially difficult for families in aviation. Charlie’s mom asked if he still wanted to continue his flight training.

KLAP: Cause I mean, it could have been, you know, her husband, in however many years it could be one of her kids.

Charlie’s younger brother Julian decided to take a break. Returning to flight after a tragic accident is sobering for any aviator.

KLAP: Obviously for my dad it was rough because he knew the people personally. He had known them for years, he got hired with one of them. He’d been flying with the other all the time on that same trip to Honolulu.

Charlie said his dad is still processing it. Maybe he always will.

For now, Charlie cautiously continues toward his flying goals…

KLAP: I hope it won't happen again, but there’s always a chance.

Within four days of the crash, all MD-11 aircraft and its predecessor the DC-10, were grounded. 

Now, three months after the fatal accident, one company has decided to permanently retire their fleet of MD-11s. Others plan to fly again.

AUDIO: [Sound of MD-11 flying]

Those in and around aviation live with the ever-present potential of devastating danger. Careful planning and detailed decisions are of utmost importance. 

However, when crashes like Flight 2976 do happen, pilots, their families, and those around aviation live with the reality that it could have been them or one of their friends. For some… it was.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Clint Armani in Louisville, Kentucky.

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