Federal investigators looking into the deadly UPS cargo plane crash in Kentucky will closely examine the aircraft's maintenance records and data recorder after finding that one of its engines fell off during takeoff.
The plane crashed and burst into flames Tuesday in Louisville, killing at least 13 people and injuring nearly 20 others. The disaster temporarily shut down the largest UPS package distribution hub and disrupted flights in and out of the airport in Kentucky’s largest city.
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FILE - United Parcel Service transport jets wait to be loaded with packages at the UPS Worldport in Louisville, Ky., Apr. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
An employee walks to his workplace, the location of the reported crash, after a UPS cargo plane crashed and exploded while taking off at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A plume of smoke rises from the site of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A plume of smoke rises from the site of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
No one expects to find survivors in the crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub. Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday that a handful of people remained unaccounted for, and crews were continuing to search for victims in an industrial area next to the airport where the plane slammed into businesses.
Here’s what is known about the crash:
Initial findings showed that the left wing caught fire while the plane was rolling toward takeoff, and its engine fell off, the NTSB’s Todd Inman said.
Afterward, the fallen engine was left on the ground beside the runway.
The plane has three engines, one mounted on each wing and another in the tail.
The plane should have been able to take off if one engine was inoperable or even if it had fallen off, said John Cox the CEO of Florida-based aviation consulting firm Safety Operating Systems. But that may not have been possible if one of the other engines was damaged or there was other significant damage to the plane, he said.
Cox and other experts said it resembles in some ways a 1979 crash that happened at Chicago’s O’Hare airport in that killed 273 people when the same General Electric engines detached from a plane. Investigators blamed improper maintenance before that crash.
The NTSB will look into the full maintenance history of the UPS plane as well as the engines and other components, Inman said.
But he said UPS has told the agency that the flight was not delayed and that no maintenance was performed right before it took off.
Flight records suggest the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, built in 1991, underwent maintenance while it was on the ground in San Antonio for more than a month until mid-October. It is not clear what work was done.
Aviation attorney Pablo Rojas said video suggests the plane struggled to gain altitude as the flames blazed along its left side.
The plane, bound for Honolulu and fully loaded with fuel, shredded the roof of one large building before erupting in flames.
“There’s very little to contain the flames, and really the plane itself is almost acting like a bomb because of the amount of fuel,” he said.
He said it’s hard to know if the pilot saw the flames, and that even if the crew realized there was a problem, aborting the takeoff might have been dangerous.
The plane crashed in an area dotted with scrap yards and UPS facilities.
It narrowly missed a restaurant bar and went down not far from a Ford auto assembly plant where hundreds of people were working, Beshear said.
The blaze stretched nearly a city block and destroyed much of the plane's fuselage, fire officials said.
FILE - United Parcel Service transport jets wait to be loaded with packages at the UPS Worldport in Louisville, Ky., Apr. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
An employee walks to his workplace, the location of the reported crash, after a UPS cargo plane crashed and exploded while taking off at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A plume of smoke rises from the site of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A plume of smoke rises from the site of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal immigration officer shot and killed a man Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigidly cold streets in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said a 37-year-old man was killed but declined to identify him. He added that information about what led up to the shooting was limited. The man was identified by his parents as Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse.
The Minnesota National Guard, which had been activated earlier by Gov. Tim Walz, was assisting local police amid growing protests. Guard troops were going to both to the shooting site and to a federal building where officials have squared off with protesters daily.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him. O'Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.” The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said.
Several bystander videos of the shooting emerged soon after. Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.
President Donald Trump weighed in on social media by lashing out at Walz and the Minneapolis mayor.
Trump shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered and said: “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”
Trump, a Republican, said the Democratic governor and mayor are “are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”
In a bystander video obtained by The Associated Press, protesters can be heard blowing whistles and shouting profanities at federal officers on Nicollet Avenue.
The video shows an officer shoving a person who is wearing a brown jacket, skirt and black tights and carrying a water bottle. That person reaches out for a man and the two link up, embracing. The man, wearing a brown jacket and black hat, seems to be holding his phone up toward the officer.
The same officer shoves the man in his chest and the two, still embracing, fall back.
The video then shifts to a different part of the street and then comes back to the two individuals unlinking from each other. The video shifts focus again and then shows three officers surrounding the man.
Soon at least seven officers surround the man. One is on the man’s back and another who appears to have a cannister in his hand strikes a blow to the man’s chest. Several officers try to bring the man’s arms behind his back as he appears to resist. As they pull his arms, his face is briefly visible on camera. The officer with the cannister strikes the man near his head several times.
A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it’s not clear from where the shot came. Multiple officers back off of the man after the shot. More shots are heard. Officers back away and the man lies motionless on the street.
The police chief appealed for calm, both from the public and and from federal law enforcement.
“Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands,” the chief said. “We urge everyone to remain peaceful."
Gregory Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, who has commanded the administration’s big-city immigration campaign, said the officer who shot the man had extensive training as a range safety officer and in using less-lethal force.
“This is only the latest attack on law enforcement. Across the country, the men and women of DHS have been attacked, shot at,” he said.
Walz said he had no confidence in federal officials and that the state would lead the investigation into the latest fatal shooting.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said during a news conference that federal officers blocked his agency from the shooting scene, and when they returned with a signed judicial warrant, they were still blocked.
Protesters continued to converge at the scene of the shooting despite dangerously cold weather.
At Saturday midday, the worst of an extreme cold wave was over, but the temperature was still -6 degrees (-21 Celsius). The Arctic blast hadn’t deterred thousands of protesters from marching downtown Minneapolis on Friday afternoon to call for ICE to leave the Minnesota.”
The shooting happened amid widespread daily protests in the Twin Cities since the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was killed when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fired into her vehicle. Saturday's shooting unfolded just over a mile away from where Good was shot.
After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.” Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car. Protesters dragged garbage dumpsters from alleyways to block the streets, and people who gathered chanted, “ICE out now,” referring to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
“They’re killing my neighbors!” said Minneapolis resident Josh Koskie.
Federal officers wielded batons and deployed flash bangs on the crowd.
Walz said he had been in contact with the White House after the shooting. He urged President Donald Trump to end what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation.
The age of the man who was shot has been corrected to 37, per information from the police chief. The AP previously reported his age as 51 based on a hospital record.
Santana reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell'Orto, Tim Sullivan and Sarah Raza in Minnesota, Jim Mustian in New York and Michael Catalini in New Jersey also contributed.
A person reacts to Federal immigration officers after a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Federal immigration officers deploy tear gas at observers after a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Federal immigration officers deploy tear gas after a shooting in Minneapolis, on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Federal agents stand near the site of a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Federal agents stand near the site of a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Federal agents stand near the site of a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Federal agents stand near the site of a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Federal agents stand near the site of a shooting Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Clergy members and community activists gather at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, to protest deportation flights and urge airlines to call for an end to the Department of Homeland Security's operation, on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Clergy members and community activists gather at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, to protest deportation flights and urge airlines to call for an end to the Department of Homeland Security's operation, on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
