OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
12:40 PM – Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Families of victims from the UPS cargo plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 4th, which killed 14 people and injured 23, have filed wrongful death lawsuits in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
The initial filings on Wednesday represent the families of Angela Anderson, 45, and Trinadette “Trina” Chavez, 37, alleging negligence by UPS, UPS Airlines, Boeing, GE Aerospace (the engine manufacturer), and VT San Antonio Aerospace. A broader class-action suit for additional victims and affected businesses was also filed at around the same time.
This stems from a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) preliminary report citing fatigue cracks in the left engine pylon, leading to the engine detaching during takeoff from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
Attorneys from Clifford Law Offices of Chicago and Sam Aguiar of Louisville are leading the cases, and the two legal offices have drawn parallels to a 1979 American Airlines DC-10 crash.
On November 4th, the MD-11 aircraft, during Flight 2976, managed to lift about 30 feet off the ground before the left engine exploded, sending the plane up in flames and skidding to a halt. It was headed to Honolulu, Hawaii, at the time.
| Name | Age | Notes |
| Capt. Dana Diamond | 62 | UPS International Relief Officer (crew) |
| Capt. Richard Wartenberg | 57 | UPS Captain (crew); from Independence, KY |
| First Officer Lee Truitt | 45 | UPS First Officer (crew); from Albuquerque, NM |
| Angela Anderson | 45 | Ground victim |
| Carlos Fernandez | 52 | Ground victim |
| Louisnes Fedon (Lou Fedon) | 47 | Ground victim; grandfather |
| Kimberly Asa | 3 | Ground victim; granddaughter of Louisnes Fedon |
| Trinadette “Trina” Chavez | 37 | Ground victim |
| Tony Crain | 65 | Ground victim |
| John Loucks | 52 | Ground victim |
| John Spray | 45 | Ground victim |
| Matthew Sweets | 37 | Ground victim; electrician at Warren Electric Company, father of two |
| Ella Petty Whorton | 31 | Ground victim |
| Megan Washburn | 35 | Ground victim |
Family representatives and their lawyers held a press conference on Wednesday.
“We’re looking for answers and accountability. The families are here for justice. This plane should never have been airworthy that day,” said Attorney Bradley Cosgrove of Clifford Law Offices, who is representing Anderson’s family.
The NTSB highlighted dramatic images of the engine detaching from the aircraft and slamming back into it. Investigators determined that the bearing connecting the engine to the wing had suffered a fracture with clear signs of overstress. They also noted striking similarities between the Louisville, Kentucky, incident and the catastrophic 1979 crash of American Airlines Flight 191.
Cosgrove contended that the signs of stress found on the aircraft on the NTSB report “would have been longstanding defects that should have been found and fixed long before this aged aircraft was continued to be pressed to its max by UPS over and over and over and over with more than 21,000 cycles under its belt.”
“When an engine detaches from a large cargo jet during takeoff, and the aircraft bursts into a fireball visible for miles, an entire community is affected. Innocent lives are lost, leaving deep holes in families,” the lawyer said in a statement. “Impacted survivors are left with injuries and lifelong scars, with their normal lives shattered by an explosion that many people compared to a bomb going off next door. This tragedy is an unacceptable event that indicates a catastrophic failure across numerous safety systems.”
Cosgrove also pointed out that MD-11 planes are all grounded due to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) directive issued after the crash. The grounding is expected to last into 2026, which Anderson’s family’s legal team sees as evidence of the aircraft’s inherent structural issues.
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