Following the UPS plane crash that killed at least 13 people, one Louisvillian and two businesses are suing the company that owned the plane, its manufacturer and the designer of its engine.
On Nov. 4, an MD-11 UPS cargo plane crashed during takeoff from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport after the left engine fell off the aircraft. An enormous black plume of smoke hung over the UPS Worldport, the airport and surrounding businesses for several hours as dozens of fire crews rushed to put out the blaze.
Two days later, a local business owner and a city resident filed a class action complaint against UPS, GE and Boeing. The lawsuit alleges the defendants were “reckless and negligent.” The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to certify their class, which they say has more than 100 members.
According to the complaint filed Thursday, toxic smoke from the complaint filled Louisville resident Shakeara Ware’s home and her lungs. After the shelter-in-place order was lifted, Ware went to the emergency room for treatment, the document said.
As emergency crews worked into the night to put out the fire and assess early damages, two of David Ensey Jr.'s businesses were in the half-mile path of the wreckage, the lawsuit alleges. Ensey owns an auto repair shop called Triple D Inc and another business, Ensey LLC.
“The entire business, including but not limited to its machinery, personal property, customers’ vehicles, and other assets were all destroyed as the result of the crash,” the lawsuit alleges.
It said Boeing’s MD-11 aircrafts and the CF6 engines made by GE “have a history of catastrophic failures.” Attorneys with the Morgan & Morgan injury law firm cited the 2009 FedEx MD-11 crash in Tokyo and multiple CF6 engine failures dating back to 1979.
“This tragedy has needlessly shattered the lives of many in the Louisville community,” attorneys Mike Morgan, Rene Rocha and Tanner Shultz said in an emailed statement. “Our clients and others began their day like any other, and they are now left grappling with how and why this catastrophe could have happened. We are committed to uncovering the truth and will stop at nothing to achieve justice.”
New information discovered
In a press conference Friday afternoon, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said the investigation is still in the “fact-gathering phases.”
Inman said the NTSB recovered cockpit voice recordings from the plane. The audio is 2 hours and 4 minutes long, and Inman said it shows the flight crew completed their standard checklist to prepare for the flight.
In the last minute of the recording, Inman said the crew called for takeoff and about 30 seconds later a “repeating bell” chimed.
“The recording lasted until 25 seconds after the initial persistent bells,” Inman said. “That was the end of the recording. We believe that right now that the end of the recording was the final point of impact.”
All three crew members were killed in the crash: Cap. Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt and International Relief Officer Captain Dana Diamond.
Inman said the NTSB has tasked a team with transcribing and analyzing the audio to better understand the last minute of the recording. He said the audio will not be available to the public for several months.
NTSB staff will remain in Louisville until the investigation is complete, Inman said. As of now, Inman said, it is difficult to sort through the debris field due to the types of businesses in the path of wreckage.
Several of them are automotive companies.
“[We’re] seeing a lot of combinations of similar metals or alloys,” Inman said. “So we'll have to distinguish between aircraft parts and those which may already be on the ground. But we've already made plans to try to move as much of that off-site, and then evaluate what we need to in a different location, which will hopefully free up more of the debris area.”
If you find any debris from the crash, email the NTSB at witness@ntsb.gov.
