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9 still missing, fleets grounded, questions mounting: How the UPS plane crash leaves a community in mourning | CNN

Published

5 months ago

November 8, 2025

9 still missing, fleets grounded, questions mounting: How the UPS plane crash leaves a community in mourning | CNN

The ashes have settled over the charred Louisville neighborhood where nine people remain missing and families cling to hope as investigators comb through the wreckage of Tuesday’s fatal UPS cargo plane crash.

A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft plummeted from the sky in Kentucky into a community on the edge of the airport, killing at least 14 people, and carving a trail of fire that consumed businesses and forced panicked victims to jump from the windows to escape the inferno.

For now, UPS and FedEx have immediately grounded their entire fleet of MD-11 aircrafts as investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board gather every fragment of evidence to piece together what happened in those final seconds before impact.

It’s been a year marked by aviation tragedies – and this crash raises the same haunting question: What went wrong this time? Here’s what we know so far.

Shortly after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, the cargo plane’s engine and the pylon, which supports the engine, fell off the left wing of UPS flight 2976 as it accelerated for takeoff, the NTSB said.

Investigators have yet to determine why it happened, but operators are erring on the side of caution until answers emerge.

“Out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of safety, we have made the decision to temporarily ground our MD-11,” UPS said in a statement. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our employees and the communities we serve.”

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircrafts are used exclusively for cargo operations and make up about 9% of the UPS fleet. The company said it had contingency plans to temporarily operate without them.

FedEx, the only other major US airline to operate the MD-11, will also ground them for “a thorough safety review based on the recommendation of the manufacturer,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The decisions come after recommendations from Boeing, which merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997.

The Federal Aviation Administration is aware UPS and FedEx voluntarily grounded their MD-11 fleets and is working closely with Boeing and supporting the NTSB’s investigation into the crash, a spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are assessing any potential safety issues and will ensure appropriate corrective actions are taken,” the FAA said.

The UPS freighter that crashed was a 34-year old jet. While that may be considered old for a passenger plane, that’s not so unusual in the world of air cargo and there are no initial indications that the age of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was in any way a factor in the fatal crash.

The NTSB will release a preliminary report within 30 days, but it could be 18 to 24 months before the investigation concludes, according to Jim Brauchle, an aviation attorney with law firm Motley Rice and former US Air Force navigator.

The cockpit voice recorders and the engine and pylon that fell off the airplane’s wing have been moved to a secure facility, where they are being examined, NTSB investigator Todd Inman said during a news conference Friday.

The engine was found lying on the ground and will help investigators determine what may have caused the crash, according to CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.

“That’s a huge clue and does give the (NTSB) a pretty good idea of what started this all off,” Schiavo said.

The engine coming off of the plane before the final impact and the fireball that followed suggests an “uncontained engine failure, meaning the engine spews out parts,” Schiavo said.

It’s possible pieces flying off of one failing engine could have impacted other key parts of the plane, and the engine likely ruptured the wing fuel tank when it ripped from the plane, she added.

Investigators have also recovered two hours of clear cockpit audio from the UPS cargo plane that confirmed the crew completed standard checklists and takeoff briefings, Inman said, before what he described what began as an “uneventful” takeoff roll.

The transcript of the recording will be released to the public in several months, once most of the agency’s reports are completed, Inman said.

Inman also confirmed the aircraft had recently undergone a heavy maintenance check in San Antonio, and clarified earlier reports of the plane reaching 475 feet were inaccurate. Data now shows the jet only climbed to about 100 feet above ground level before crashing.

“The maintenance will be the big issue — what exactly was done to the aircraft, who did it, what parts were replaced, what procedures were followed, and who inspected the work,” Schiavo said.

Investigators will be particularly interested in which engines or other parts may have been removed or replaced during maintenance, she added.

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of impacted victims and businesses

Residents living near the crash site and local businesses facing significant economic losses who suffered emotional distress have filed a lawsuit against UPS, Boeing and General Electric.

The plaintiffs accuse the companies of recklessness and negligence, which “upended the lives and livelihoods” of many in the Louisville community, according to the complaint, filed in US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.

The lawsuit alleges the Boeing McDonnell Douglas MD-11 crash was preventable and the defendants must be held accountable for the “trauma, fear and uncertainty” their actions have caused, according to the complaint, filed by the law firm Morgan & Morgan.

A Boeing spokesperson told CNN they have no comment about the lawsuit but said it is supporting NTSB’s investigation and extends its condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

“Our heartfelt thoughts are with everyone involved,” a UPS spokesperson told CNN. “We do not comment on pending litigation.”

General Electric did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

“This tragedy has needlessly shattered the lives of many in the Louisville community,” attorneys Mike Morgan, Rene Rocha, and Tanner Shultz said in a statement. “We are committed to uncovering the truth and will stop at nothing to achieve justice.”

The suit also highlights the troubled safety record of Boeing’s MD-11 aircraft, calling it one of the most accident-prone commercial planes still in service. The filing cites past crashes, including a fatal 2009 FedEx MD-11 crash in Tokyo, and alleges similar design flaws or defects in Boeing’s MD-11 may have caused or contributed to the November 4 crash.

The plaintiffs argued UPS’ own modifications to convert the plane into a cargo model could have played a role. The complaint further points to GE’s CF6 engines, which have been involved in multiple catastrophic incidents, as another potential factor in the disaster.

The fire came first with a plume of red flames and black smoke twisting through the sunset. Then came the screams.

Nine people are still missing –- and officials don’t believe it’s likely there are any more survivors.

The plane crashed into Grade A Auto Parts, an automotive part and recycling facility where three employees are still unaccounted for.

“It looked like really hell’s fury around her,” CEO Sean Garber recalled, describing a video he saw showing a “huge fireball” engulf his business as his employees screamed and ran from the flames.

Among the missing employees is John Loucks, a 52-year-old beloved uncle who worked on and off at Grade A Auto Parts for at least a decade.

“It’s scary really,” his nephew Justin Loucks told CNN. “Did he die on impact? Did he land in the woods somewhere?”

“We were told (DNA testing) could take weeks or even longer,” he added. “(Police) said there’s a lot of remains still getting recovered and a lot of them are unrecognizable.”

Three crew members aboard the freight plane are believed to be among those found dead, Kentucky officials said. UPS identified them Thursday as Capt. Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt and International Relief Officer Capt. Dana Diamond.

CNN’s Aaron Cooper, Lauren Mascarenhas, Isabel Rosales, Dalia Faheid, Jason Morris and Taylor Galgano contributed to this report.

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Southern Poverty Law Center indicted on federal fraud charges

Published

2 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

Southern Poverty Law Center indicted on federal fraud charges

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel listens during a news conference at the Justice Department on Tuesday in Washington.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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Jacquelyn Martin/AP

WASHINGTON — The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to pay informants to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with payments of at least $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and other extremist groups.

“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.

The civil rights group faces charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought by the Justice Department in Alabama, where the organization is based.

The indictment came shortly after SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its program to pay informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.

Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 7.

SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said the organization “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.”

Blanche said the money was passed from the center through two different bank accounts before being loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members of the extremist groups, which also included the National Socialist Movement and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club. The group never disclosed to donors details of the informant program, he said.

“They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” he said.

The indictment includes details on at least nine unnamed informants were paid by the SPLC through a secret program that prosecutors say began in the 1980s. Within the SPLC, they were known as field sources or “the Fs,” according to the indictment. One informant was paid more than $1 million between 2014 and 2023 while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the indictment said. Another was the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America.

The SPLC said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.

“When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” Fair said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”

The center has been targeted by Republicans

The SPLC, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 and used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit has become a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.

Moms for Liberty among conservative groups named 'extremist' by civil rights watchdog

The investigation could add to concerns that Trump’s Republican administration is using the Justice Department to go after conservative opponents and his critics. It follows a number of other investigations into Trump foes that have raised questions about whether the law enforcement agency has been turned into a political weapon.

The SPLC has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The center regularly condemns Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and other issues.

The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The center included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the center, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the center had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.

House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration “to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.”

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger Stressed Pragmatism, But Politics Hound Her

Published

12 hours ago

April 21, 2026

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger Stressed Pragmatism, But Politics Hound Her

On the night of her resounding win in last fall’s election for Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger told her supporters that they had sent a message to the world. “Virginia,” she said in the opening lines of her victory speech, “chose pragmatism over partisanship.”

But even then it was clear that the first big issue of her term would be as partisan as it gets: a proposed amendment by her fellow Democrats to allow them to gerrymander the state’s 11 congressional districts.

The push to redraw the Virginia map was another salvo in a barrage of redistricting spurred by President Trump in a bid to keep Republicans in control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.

Virginians vote on Tuesday on whether to adopt the proposed map, and if the “Yes” vote wins, Democrats could end up with as many as 10 seats, up from the six they hold now. The redistricting battles of the last year would end up in something of a draw, with gains for Democrats in California and Virginia offsetting gains for Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina — unless Florida lawmakers decide in the coming weeks to draw a new, more Republican-friendly map.

Historically, redrawing of congressional maps has been done each decade after the U.S. census. But with Republicans holding such a slim majority in the House, Mr. Trump began by pressing Texas to redraw its maps, touching off the wave of gerrymandering

Virginia Democratic legislators rolled out their redistricting plan last October, setting in motion the state’s lengthy amendment process just as the campaign for governor was entering its final weeks. At the time, Ms. Spanberger expressed support for the plan, though she emphasized that its passage was up to the legislature and then to the voters.

But even if her formal role in the process was relatively minor — Ms. Spanberger signed the bill setting the date for the referendum — the politics of the effort has loomed over the first few months of her term. Her support for the amendment has drawn accusations of hypocrisy from the right and complaints from some on the left that she has not been outspoken enough in her advocacy.

“There’s always going to be somebody who wants me to do something differently,” the governor said in an interview on Saturday at a rally in support of the amendment outside a home in Northern Virginia. “I will always make someone unhappy, and I will always make someone happy.”

Ms. Spanberger, a former C.I.A. officer and three-term congresswoman, won a 15-point victory in 2025 after running on a campaign focused on pocketbook issues. Centrism has been her political brand since she was first elected to the House in 2018, flipping a district that had long leaned to the right.

Now Republicans campaigning against the amendment have made Ms. Spanberger a prime target, deriding her as “Governor Bait-and-Switch” and highlighting an interview in August 2025 in which she said she had “no plans to redistrict Virginia.”

“This was the perfect opportunity for her to show that she is the middle-of-the-road suburban mom that she portrayed herself as,” said Glen Sturtevant, a Republican state senator. He dismissed the notion that this was an effort that had been thrust upon her, pointing out that she had signed the bill setting the date for the referendum. “She is certainly an active participant in this whole process,” he said.

Republicans have eagerly highlighted recent polls suggesting that Ms. Spanberger’s honeymoon is over, though because governors in Virginia cannot serve two consecutive terms, public approval is less of a pressure point than it might be elsewhere. Some of her political adversaries have tied the drop in her ratings to her involvement in the campaign for the amendment.

But a number of factors are at play in those sagging poll numbers. Some on the right are irked by her support of standard Democratic priorities like gun control measures and limits to cooperation with federal immigration agents.

But some of the most vociferous criticism of her from Republicans, up to and including the president, has been for a host of proposed taxes and tax hikes in the legislature — on everything from dog grooming to dry cleaning — that she in fact had nothing do with. Most of those taxes, which were floated by various lawmakers, never even came up for a vote.

But Ms. Spanberger did not publicly hit back against these attacks until recent days, a delay that some Democrats say was costly.

“She let other people define her,” said Scott Surovell, the State Senate majority leader.

Mr. Surovell’s frustration echoed a growing discontent among Democrats about the governor’s recent moves. For all the Republican criticism of her, some operatives and lawmakers said, Ms. Spanberger has not been aggressive enough in pushing for Democratic priorities, redistricting among them.

This criticism broke out into the open in recent days, after the governor made scores of amendments to bills that had passed the General Assembly. Some lawmakers and Democratic allies accused her of unexpectedly diluting long-sought goals like expanded public sector unions and a legal retail marketplace for cannabis.

“Our party base is looking for us to stand up and fight and advocate and deliver,” said Mr. Surovell, who represents a solidly Democratic district in Northern Virginia. “It’s hard to deliver when you’re standing in the middle of the road.”

In the interview, Ms. Spanberger insisted that she supported the purpose of many of the bills but had to make amendments to ensure that her administration could implement them.

And she said she had been explicit in her support of the redistricting effort, appearing in statewide TV ads encouraging people to vote “Yes” even as an anti-amendment campaign has sent out mailers suggesting that the governor opposes the effort.

But she said she had never been in a position to barnstorm the state as Gov. Gavin Newsom did in the months leading up to the redistricting referendum that passed in California. Mr. Newsom is a second-term governor in a much bluer state, she said, while she only recently took office and has been “in the crush of their legislative session,” with hundreds of bills to read and examine in a short period.

“Those who may not be focused on the governing and only on the politics, they’re going to want me to do politics 100 percent of the time,” she said. “And for people who care about the governing and not the politics, they’re going to want me to do governing 100 percent of the time.”

Her preference, as she has often made apparent, is for the governing over the politicking. But she acknowledged that it is all part of the job.

Asked if she lamented that the highest-profile issue of her term so far was such a polarizing matter, rather than the cost-of-living policies she emphasized on the campaign trail, she said: “Any person in elected office wants to talk about the thing they want to talk about all the time, and that’s it. So I won’t say ‘No’ to that question.”

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Video: Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

Published

1 day ago

April 20, 2026

Press Room

Video: Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

new video loaded: Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

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Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

The musician D4vd was charged with murder on Monday, seven months after the police said that the body of a teenage girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, had been found in the trunk of his Tesla. D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

: “On April 23, 2025, as has been alleged by the complaint, Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again.” “These charges include the most serious charges that a D.A.‘s office can bring. That is first-degree murder with special circumstances. The special circumstances being lying in wait, committing this crime for financial gain or murdering a witness in an investigation. These special circumstances carry with it, along with the first-degree murder charge, a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.” “We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Revis Hernandez nor was he the cause of her death.”
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The musician D4vd was charged with murder on Monday, seven months after the police said that the body of a teenage girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, had been found in the trunk of his Tesla. D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

By Jackeline Luna

April 20, 2026