A routine UPS MD-11 takeoff in clear morning skies turned into a devastating 25-second struggle for control after an unexpected warning bell signaled a hidden aircraft malfunction, leaving the experienced crew fighting desperately before the jet plunged to the ground—an outcome as shocking as it was heartbreaking.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s third and final briefing on the UPS cargo crash has revealed a chilling sequence of events inside the cockpit—events that turned an ordinary takeoff into a fatal emergency in less than half a minute.

According to investigators, the two-pilot crew of the MD-11, both highly experienced and with thousands of hours logged on long-haul routes, spent their final 25 seconds fighting for control after an unexpected alert shattered the calm of a routine departure from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.

The aircraft, operating as UPS Flight 1354 in the early morning hours shortly after sunrise, had pushed back from the ramp at 4:47 a.m.

Both pilots—Captain Michael Anders, 54, a veteran with twenty-seven years at UPS, and First Officer Daniel Ruiz, 41, a former Air Force transport pilot—went through their pre-flight procedures with precision.

Cockpit voice recordings reviewed by the NTSB show normal callouts, no tension, and no signs of mechanical concerns.

The MD-11, tail number N592UP, had completed its last major maintenance inspection just three weeks prior with no anomalies reported.

Taxi and takeoff were uneventful.

The aircraft lifted off runway 17R smoothly, climbing through 400 feet with steady engine performance.

“Rotate,” Captain Anders announced, followed by the reassuring thump of the landing gear rising into the fuselage.

The conditions were ideal—light winds, clear skies, stable temperatures.

This was, by all outward appearances, a standard long-haul departure bound for Honolulu.

But at 37 seconds after liftoff, everything changed.

A repeating alert bell, sharp and unmistakable, cut through the cockpit.

The MD-11’s systems use this tone for only a handful of conditions, all of them serious.

The NTSB confirmed the sound was consistent with a configuration warning, meaning the aircraft believed a primary flight surface or control setting had shifted out of safe range.

“There’s something wrong,” Ruiz said sharply on the cockpit recorder, the first note of concern in a flight that had been flawlessly routine until that moment.

Captain Anders responded immediately, calling for a check of the flight controls.

Investigators found that the aircraft’s left-side elevator trim showed a rapid, unexplained movement—an anomaly still under review.

What happened next unfolded rapidly, with the MD-11 beginning a shallow but increasing pitch oscillation.

The jet was still over the initial climb corridor east of the airfield, moving too fast and too low to allow the crew much margin for error.

The NTSB reconstructed those final seconds in detail.

At 41 seconds, the cockpit recorder captured Ruiz saying, “Holding it… holding it—” followed by a short, rising grunt as he attempted to counter the pitch movement.

The aircraft began to roll slightly left, then right, an early sign of control imbalance.

Anders, who had flown the MD-11 for more than a decade, took manual control from the autopilot.

“My airplane,” he announced firmly, a standard phrase during emergencies.

But the MD-11 is notoriously unforgiving at low altitude.

The pitch oscillation increased.

Within seconds, the cargo aircraft entered what investigators described as an “unstable flight regime,” a condition in which aerodynamic recovery options narrow dangerously.

At 52 seconds after liftoff, the jet reached its highest point—barely 950 feet above ground—and began an uncommanded nose-down descent.

The final recorded cockpit dialogue is hauntingly brief.

Ruiz: “Negative trim—still moving—”
Anders: “I’ve got it… I’ve got—”
(impact noise)

The aircraft struck the ground approximately 1.6 miles from the runway, breaking apart and erupting into flames.

Both pilots died instantly.

While the board has not released its official probable cause, investigators are examining a possible combination of faulty trim indication, control surface malfunction, and crew response under rapidly deteriorating conditions.

Former MD-11 pilots interviewed as part of the inquiry noted the type’s sensitivity during takeoff, especially if trim or control surfaces drift out of tolerance.

The final NTSB briefing emphasized the human factor as well: the crew’s calm execution of routine procedures, the abruptness of the warning, and the extraordinarily limited time they had to diagnose and respond.

“This event unfolded with unusual speed,” the chairman stated.

“The crew had less than 25 seconds of effective control after the alert sounded.

Their actions were precise, rapid, and consistent with training.”

As the investigation closes, one question lingers above all others: how could a flight so normal, so stable, so routine become unrecoverable in under a minute? The answer, investigators say, lies in those 25 seconds—a slim window in which two trained pilots fought a machine that was changing faster than they could counter it.