keady -an overwrought description of this crash. But, at least to me, many new 
facts appear below 

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Home Uncategorized UPS Flight 2976 Black Box Horror: Captain’s Final Words 11 
Seconds Before Catastrophe – “Lee, You Feel That? It’s Not Right” – The 
Haunting Transcript That’s Breaking Investigators’ Hearts!
UPS Flight 2976 Black Box Horror: Captain’s Final Words 11 Seconds Before 
Catastrophe – “Lee, You Feel That? It’s Not Right” – The Haunting Transcript 
That’s Breaking Investigators’ Hearts!
Uncategorized hienpham · November 17, 2025 · Comments off

arrow_forward_iosRead morePause00:0001:0701:31MutePowered by GliaStudios
In the smoldering ruins of Louisville’s Rubbertown, where the Ohio River laps 
at the edges of industrial scars and the acrid tang of jet fuel lingers like a 
bad dream, the black box from UPS Flight 2976 has coughed up a final, 
gut-wrenching whisper from the grave. Thirteen days after the November 4, 2025, 
inferno that claimed 14 lives and grounded a fleet, the NTSB’s cockpit voice 
recorder (CVR) has revealed Captain Richard Wartenberg’s last words—uttered 
just 11 seconds before the “serious incident” that tore the MD-11’s left engine 
from its wing like a vengeful god. “Lee… you feel that? It’s not right,” the 
57-year-old Air Force vet murmured, his voice a mix of seasoned calm and 
creeping dread, captured in a 2-hour, 4-minute digital dirge that’s left 
families shattered and probe teams sleepless. This isn’t just audio; it’s a 
time capsule of terror, a 25-second symphony of bells, banter, and bravery that 
ends in silence louder than any explosion. As the world digests this bombshell 
from NTSB’s November 7 briefing—detailed in a YouTube deep-dive that’s racked 
up 2.7 million views—the question scorching forums and newsrooms alike: Was 
this the captain’s gut instinct on a fatal flaw, or the universe’s cruelest 
premonition? Spoiler: The bell that drowned him out? It rang for 25 merciless 
seconds, right up to impact.

For those still reeling from the headlines—or bingeing NTSB recaps like 
true-crime addicts—Flight 2976 was meant to be a milk run: An 8.5-hour cargo 
hop from Louisville Muhammad Ali International (SDF) to Honolulu, loaded with 
holiday-bound parcels under sodium-lit skies. The bird? N259UP, a 34-year-old 
McDonnell Douglas MD-11BCF, fresh off a “heavy check” in San Antonio six weeks 
prior, its Pratt & Whitney PW4462 engines humming like old friends. At the 
controls: Wartenberg, a retired lieutenant colonel with 12,000 hours and a 
penchant for dad jokes per crew logs; First Officer Lee Truitt, 45, the steady 
hand on his third long-haul with UPS; and relief officer Captain Dana Diamond, 
62, the veteran sage napping in the jump seat till needed. Loadmaster Elena 
Vasquez, 29, rounded out the quartet, her pre-flight manifest ticking off 
175,000 pounds of freight without a hitch. Weather? Balmy—6-knot southeast 
breeze, 10-mile viz. Takeoff thrust called at 5:12:55 p.m. EST on runway 17R, 
the beast clawing skyward at 186 knots. Routine. Until it wasn’t.

The CVR, charred but unbowed—recovered November 6 amid twisted pylons and fused 
fuselage shards—paints a cockpit tableau straight out of a pilot’s nightmare. 
Over two hours of crystal-clear chatter: Taxi banter about Honolulu luau spots 
(“Tammy, you hitting Duke’s for mai tais?”), Vasquez’s load confirm (“All 
secure, Cap”), and the ritual pre-roll checklist. Then, at T+37 seconds 
post-thrust—rotation barely kissed 475 feet—a “persistent bell” erupts. Not a 
chirp; a relentless master caution klaxon, the cockpit’s red-alert banshee for 
fire, failure, or fracture. It wails unbroken for 25 seconds, till the recorder 
cuts at impact: 5:13:32 p.m., when the freighter veered 90 degrees left, wing 
ablaze, plowing into Grade A Auto Parts and Kentucky Petroleum Recycling in a 
2,000-degree fireball. Eleven ground crew vaporized—names like Rico Valdez, 37, 
forklift vet, and Lena Kim, 26, sorter mom—joining the flight’s three in 
eternity.

But those 11 seconds? They’re the dagger. Rewind to T+26: The flight data 
recorder (FDR) logs that 0.8g lateral shudder—the “ghost shake” pilots whisper 
about on PPRuNe forums—a 2-degree yaw blip unlogged in diagnostics. Wartenberg, 
yoke firm, breaks the hum: “Lee… you feel that? It’s not right.” Truitt, 
scanning gauges: “Affirm, Cap—torque’s spiking left. Hydraulics?” Diamond 
stirs: “Checking fire loop.” Vasquez: “Load shift? Negative.” Eleven ticks 
later, the bell screams—fire in the pylon, engine shearing free on a suspected 
micro-fracture from the San Antonio torque over-spec (union leaks peg it at 5% 
hot). Chaos cascades: “Engine fire! Thrust vector right—spoilers out!” 
Wartenberg yanks, Truitt calls “Terrain! Pull up!”—a desperate ballet against 
physics’ tyranny. No mayday; no time. The CVR ends mid-yaw, bells tolling like 
a funeral knell.

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