Louisville: A repeating bell sounded in the cockpit for 25 seconds as pilots tried to control a UPS cargo plane that caught fire, had an engine fall off and crashed during take-off this week in Louisville, Kentucky, a National Transportation Safety Board member said on Friday.
The cockpit voice recorder captured a persistent bell that began about 37 seconds after the crew called for take-off thrust, and the bell continued until the recording ended, which investigators believe was the final point of impact, NTSB member Todd Inman said.
Inman said there could be different types of alarms with varying meanings, but investigators know there was a fire in the plane’s left wing and will use flight data to help determine a clearer picture of what happened.
On Friday, the NTSB released drone footage showing the devastation on the ground caused by the burning plane crashing through a swath of industrial buildings, including a petroleum recycling facility.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, said the bell was probably signalling the engine fire.
“It occurred at a point in the take-off where they were likely past their decision speed to abort the take-off,” Guzzetti told the Associated Press after Inman’s news conference on Friday (Saturday AEDT).
“They were likely past their critical decision speed to remain on the runway and stop safely … They’ll need to thoroughly investigate the options the crew may or may not have had.”
The crash on Wednesday AEDT at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub in Louisville, killed 13 people, including the three pilots on board, Captain Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt and International Relief Officer Captain Dana Diamond.
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