Wright-Patt officer was one of those killed in UPS crash

Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers, an Air Force officer and a pilot, said on the social media site X that Wartenberg served as a pilot in the Air Force Reserve, first for the 356th Tactical Airlift Squadron before being assigned to the 356th Airlift Squadron within the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson.

“Words can’t express the sorrow we feel over the heartbreaking Flight 2976 accident,” UPS said. “It’s with great sorrow that we share the names of the UPS pilots on board UPS Flight 2976.”

A spokeswoman for the 445th on Thursday referred questions to UPS. Further questions were sent to the wing.

In a 2011 interview with the Dayton Daily News, then-Maj. Richard Wartenberg, one of the 445th’s air crew members, recalled to a reporter his experience of flying over crash sites at the Pentagon and Ground Zero in New York City and seeing the smoke soon after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

The pilots involved then were directed to fly to the Royal Air Force Mildenhall base in England to retrieve U.S. special operations forces there for missions back at home.

Because commercial aviation in this country was grounded immediately after the 9/11 attacks, the skies were strangely quiet as military pilots flew about, Wartenberg recalled.

“It was actually pretty eerie,” Wartenberg told the newspaper in 2011. “Usually, there’s a lot of radio traffic and everything else. But being the only few planes in the air that day, you got directly wherever you wanted to go.”

The 445th flew a Wright-Patterson Medical Center trauma, surgical and critical care team to support the emergency responses at the 2001 crash sites.

Wartenberg was selected for promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2013.

An engine on the UPS cargo plane detached from the plane moments before the plane took flight, the New York Times reported, citing a National Transportation Safety Board official.

The plane crashed into a series of industrial buildings. At least 13 people died in the crash.