(BOWLING GREEN, WARREN COUNTY, KENTUCKY) The National Transportation Safety Board said a left engine detached from a Boeing 767 freighter before it crashed and exploded near Bowling Green early November 4, 2025, killing both crew members and leaving no survivors. Investigators described an in-flight engine separation in the moments before impact, a rare and grave failure that will anchor the federal probe into the UPS plane crash.
In a preliminary update on November 5, 2025, the NTSB confirmed the UPS cargo jet’s left engine “separated from the wing in flight, prior to impact.” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said,
“The left engine was found nearly a mile from the main wreckage site. Our investigators are working to determine the cause of the separation.”
She added, “We are examining maintenance records, flight data, and conducting metallurgical analysis of the engine pylon and attachment points.” The findings add urgency to a broad inquiry drawing in the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, and have prompted the FAA to issue a safety notice to operators of Boeing 767 aircraft while the investigation unfolds.
The twin-engine Boeing 767 had departed Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with two pilots aboard, according to officials. The flight ended abruptly at approximately 4:12 a.m. local time in a wooded area off Route 68, about five miles east of Bowling Green, after witnesses reported a loud bang and a fireball. The crew was later identified as Captain Michael “Mike” Reynolds, 52, of Louisville, Kentucky, and First Officer Sarah Kim, 38, of Nashville, Tennessee, both killed in the crash.
Families of the pilots spoke briefly as news of the engine separation spread. Standing outside the family’s home in Louisville, Reynolds’ wife, Laura Reynolds, said,
“Mike was a dedicated pilot with over 20 years at UPS. He loved flying and always put safety first.”
Daniel Kim, the first officer’s brother, said,
“Sarah was passionate about aviation since she was a child. We are devastated by her loss.”
Their words underscored a personal tragedy that now intersects with a technical investigation into the Boeing 767’s engine mount system and the forces that tore the engine free.
James Porter, who lives near the crash site, said the predawn quiet broke with a violent report overhead. “I heard a loud bang, then saw something fall from the sky. Moments later, there was a huge explosion and black smoke rising from the woods.” He and his wife called 911 as flames spread and debris rained across fields and tree lines. By sunrise, emergency teams had set up a perimeter around the main fuselage, which came down in dense woods where wreckage burned for hours.
Firefighters described a difficult scene with scattered debris and intense heat. Warren County Fire Chief Lisa McMillan said,
“The fire was intense and took over two hours to bring under control. Debris was scattered over a wide area.”
The NTSB said the left engine was found “approximately 1.2 miles northeast of the main crash site,” according to investigator-in-charge Mark Evans, a distance consistent with a midair engine separation and the chaotic path of falling components. Crews methodically marked fragments across fields and along rural roads as investigators mapped a footprint stretching well beyond the cratered impact site.
A 12-member NTSB team reached Bowling Green on November 5 and began standard field protocols for a major crash inquiry, including documenting wreckage, interviewing first responders and witnesses, and collecting maintenance and operational records. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were recovered and sent to Washington, D.C., for analysis. The FAA and Boeing are assisting the probe, as is common when investigators must reconstruct a chain of technical events on a complex aircraft system. The NTSB said it will focus early attention on the engine pylon—which attaches the engine to the wing—and the mounting hardware and structures designed to hold the powerplant in place under the stresses of flight.
UPS publicly mourned the pilots and promised full cooperation with regulators. Company spokesperson David Graves said,
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleagues. UPS is cooperating fully with the NTSB and FAA in the investigation.”
The Louisville-based cargo carrier operates a large fleet of Boeing 767 freighters on domestic and international routes, and the crash is the company’s first fatal air accident since UPS Flight 1354 went down in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2013. While investigators say it is too early to connect the cases, the Birmingham crash involved controlled flight into terrain on approach; the Bowling Green event centers on apparent structural or mechanical failure linked to engine separation.
For residents in the quiet expanse east of the city, the UPS plane crash shattered a routine Tuesday morning with a shockwave and smoke. The smell of burning fuel drifted over fields, and emergency vehicles streamed down Route 68 as dawn grew. Porter’s account of a loud bang and falling debris aligns with what investigators are tracing in both physical evidence and recorded data. The location of the left engine far from the main wreckage will guide the investigation’s timeline, with the NTSB using radar, audio from the cockpit voice recorder, and parameters from the flight data recorder to determine when the engine broke away and what forces were acting on the aircraft at that moment.
Homendy’s remarks about metallurgical analysis point to a close scrutiny of fractures and attachment points. Specialists will examine whether a progressive crack, a sudden overload, or a maintenance issue led to failure. Investigators also requested the aircraft’s maintenance history to check for recent work on the engine pylon, prior inspection findings, and any service bulletins or airworthiness directives applicable to the Boeing 767’s engine mount assemblies. The FAA’s safety notice to 767 operators signals attention across the fleet, though it does not by itself imply a known design flaw; rather, it is a precaution while facts develop.
The crash occurred in clear pre-dawn conditions, according to local authorities, though weather specifics were not immediately central to the early findings, which focused on the mechanical breakup implied by engine separation. The NTSB’s description that the engine “separated from the wing in flight, prior to impact” narrows the initial scope to structural, mechanical, or possibly maintenance-related factors. If the engine detached first, investigators will next consider how asymmetric thrust, aerodynamic disturbance, or secondary damage affected the crew’s ability to control the Boeing 767 in the short window before impact.
The cargo plane’s route from Louisville to Dallas-Fort Worth is a routine UPS corridor, part of nightly hub-and-spoke operations that cycle thousands of packages through Louisville before dispatch to destinations across the United States. For pilots and ground staff at the Louisville hub on Wednesday, word of the fatalities rippled through crews preparing for another overnight push. In households from Louisville to Nashville, families and friends of Captain Reynolds and First Officer Kim gathered in shock. “Mike was a dedicated pilot with over 20 years at UPS. He loved flying and always put safety first,” Laura Reynolds said. “Sarah was passionate about aviation since she was a child. We are devastated by her loss,” Daniel Kim said. The two statements, one from a wife recalling decades of flying and the other from a brother looking back to childhood, gave a human frame to a highly technical inquiry.
On the ground, investigators laid out a measured process. The NTSB field team will complete site documentation over several days, remove the engine and critical components for laboratory work, and begin a preliminary report typically issued within weeks. That early document will summarize factual information without assigning probable cause. A full investigation aiming to determine cause and contributing factors often takes a year or more, especially when metallurgical testing and systems analysis are central. The FAA’s parallel work with Boeing may result in inspection guidance to operators if early clues suggest a specific area of concern, such as bolts, fittings, or pylon structures. Any directives would be shared publicly through the agency’s airworthiness database.
Mark Evans, the NTSB investigator-in-charge, anchored the geographic picture by noting the left engine’s discovery “approximately 1.2 miles northeast of the main crash site,” placing a key piece of evidence on a different axis from the fuselage. That separation helps model a sequence of breakup and descent that will be cross-checked against flight data recorder streams such as airspeed, altitude, pitch and roll, engine parameters, and control inputs. The cockpit voice recorder could capture the crew’s final calls, warnings, or alerts that point to a sudden mechanical failure. It may also confirm the moment the crew realized an engine had detached, if that became apparent in their final seconds.
Local responders remained at the scene through Wednesday to support federal teams and ensure safety as investigators moved among fractured structures and scorched trees. McMillan’s description—“The fire was intense and took over two hours to bring under control. Debris was scattered over a wide area.”—reflected a hazardous environment where even small fragments can become crucial clues. Some debris, such as internal engine parts or pylon fittings, may bear witness marks—streaks, scratches, or deformation—that correlate with forces and directions in the moments before failure.
Boeing said it is assisting the NTSB through technical teams familiar with the 767’s airframe and systems, according to officials involved in the response. The engine manufacturer was not identified in details released publicly as of Wednesday, and investigators did not specify whether any recent service bulletins addressed the 767’s engine attachment points. Homendy’s reference to metallurgical analysis of the “engine pylon and attachment points” suggests a focus on how the engine was secured and whether any cracks or corrosion might have gone undetected.
As crews documented the wooded crash site off Route 68, UPS workers and union representatives awaited further word on inspections and steps to reassure pilots flying similar routes. The FAA’s safety notice to Boeing 767 operators indicates a near-term emphasis on checks that can be performed without grounding fleets, unless later findings require stronger action. For families of the two pilots, the questions are more intimate and immediate. In Louisville, friends left flowers near the Reynolds home. In Nashville, relatives gathered to remember Kim’s path into the cockpit. The words from their loved ones were plain and heavy:
“We are devastated by her loss.”
The Bowling Green crash is the first fatal UPS air accident since the 2013 crash of UPS Flight 1354 in Birmingham, Alabama, a grim marker for a company that moves millions of packages a day and relies on routine more than any other virtue. Investigators stressed that while comparisons are natural, each case turns on its own facts. Here, the defining fact in the opening stage is engine separation. The NTSB’s first public line—“separated from the wing in flight, prior to impact”—frames the work ahead and sets a high bar for the system of inspections and maintenance that guards against such failures.
Officials said the NTSB will release updates as warranted and encouraged the public to follow verified channels for accurate information. The agency posts investigative updates and safety recommendations on its official site at the National Transportation Safety Board. For now, the focus in Warren County remains on assembling the evidence—an engine more than a mile away, a fuselage buried in a wooded scar, and a trail of debris that narrates a violent descent. Each measured step is meant to explain how a routine cargo run in a Boeing 767 turned into a deadly emergency, and to ensure that whatever broke, failed, or was missed is addressed so another crew does not face the same fate.
This Article in a Nutshell
A UPS Boeing 767 freighter crashed near Bowling Green, Kentucky, on November 4, 2025, after its left engine separated in flight, killing both pilots. The NTSB found the engine about 1.2 miles from the main wreckage and recovered both flight recorders for analysis. Investigators are examining maintenance records, conducting metallurgical tests of the engine pylon and attachment points, and coordinating with the FAA and Boeing. The FAA issued a safety notice to 767 operators while the probe continues.
