Fresh audio leaked from a popular watering hole yards from the wreckage has laid bare the sheer terror that gripped happy hour patrons as a UPS MD-11 cargo plane nosedived into an industrial park, erupting in flames and claiming 14 lives in the Bluegrass State’s deadliest aviation disaster in decades.

Stooges Bar & Grill, a no-frills spot jammed with Ford plant workers and UPS regulars chowing down on 59-cent shrimp specials, plunged into darkness Tuesday around 5:15 p.m. when UPS Flight 2976 – bound for Honolulu with 38,000 gallons of fuel – lost its left engine mid-takeoff, careened off the runway at Muhammad Ali International Airport and smashed into nearby businesses in a half-mile debris storm.

“I had just ordered my first beer and the lights went out,” regular Bryson Beck told CNN, recounting the blackout as the ground rattled like an earthquake. Patrons’ phone recordings – now circulating online – pick up gasps, shouts of “What the hell was that?” and frantic calls for loved ones amid the acrid smoke wafting in.

One clip captures a woman’s voice cracking: “Oh my God, it’s a plane – it’s on fire!” as orange glow flickered through windows, turning the dive bar into a scene straight out of apocalypse now.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear didn’t mince words: The jet “barely missed a restaurant/bar,” sparing Stooges a direct hit but leaving drinkers dodging falling debris and fleeing into the chaos.

By Friday, the toll hit 14 – including pilots Capt. Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt and relief Capt. Dana Diamond – with ground victims from struck outfits like Grade A Auto Parts and Kentucky Petroleum Recycling.

Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed the grim finds, praising first responders who sifted rubble for days amid spot fires that could smolder a week.

Dispatch audio paints the frenzy: Cops and firefighters scrambling as initial “explosion” calls morphed into “plane down” alerts, mutual aid pouring in from Indiana.

NTSB’s Todd Inman revealed black boxes yielded gold: Two hours of cockpit chatter, including a persistent bell blaring 25-37 seconds post-thrust – likely a fire warning as the left wing ignited.

The 34-year-old trijet, N259UP, sat in San Antonio for a month-long heavy check till mid-October – maintenance logs now under the microscope.

Boeing heir to the MD-11 urged grounding the fleet; UPS pulled its 26 remaining birds, FedEx its 28, rerouting via 767s and 777s to dodge holiday snarls.

Western Global, with 16 (mostly parked), stayed mum.

Stooges owner fired up GoFundMes for staff trauma, while vigils lit the Big Four Bridge UPS yellow.

Regular Fred Willard, 100 feet from impact, bought a lottery ticket post-shift: “Everybody at work saying how lucky you are – heard that a thousand times.”

Barfly Beck summed the randomness: One sip later, and it could’ve been curtains.

NTSB’s delayering the site, eyeing fan blades scattered like confetti, fuel tanks ruptured.

Full dope drop months out, but this bell-ringing ghost might retire the MD-11 for good – production quit 2000, passenger runs 2014.

UPS CEO Carol Tomé pledged aid; Teamsters mourned at crash o’clock candles.

Beshear’s relief fund hauls for funerals, rebuilds.

As audio loops online – screams echoing Stooges’ walls – Louisville hugs tighter, skies quieter, packages detoured.

One bar tab cut short, 14 families shattered – randomness that hits like a freight train.