On November 4, a United Parcel Service cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff when its left engine detached mid-air, causing the aircraft to burst into flames and plummet into an industrial area near the airport. The accident tragically resulted in 14 deaths, including Captains Dana Diamond and Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt, and Louisnes Fedon with his three-year-old granddaughter Kimberly Asa, as well as at least 12 more casualties and the destruction of several businesses. The plane had been loaded with 38,000 gallons of jet fuel for a flight to Honolulu when the aircraft’s engine detached, then the fuel is suspected to have lit up. 

In response to this horrific event, the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as the UPS and FedEx, plan to ground all MD-11 and MD-11F aircrafts until safety inspections are conducted. Marina Garcia, a junior, agreed with the inspection plans and remarked about how she believes “there should still be more safety checks, and they should also be going over more emergency protocols.” Another junior, Kaden Fraire, concurred, mentioning that “They [the Aviation Administration] should be making sure all the engines and mechanical parts are good on planes and use as much money as they need to make sure it’s all safe.” While investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board examine the detached engine, wreckage, maintenance records, and audio records to try to discern what happened, many residents have been left concerned and unsure about how such a catastrophic tragedy could have occurred during a routine takeoff. Memorials have already begun to sprout near the crash site in honor of the lives taken during the incident, and as Kaden noted, “It’s a reminder that anything could happen on planes.”