A UPS cargo plane caught fire and crashed briefly after attempting to take off at the courier’s primary air cargo hub in Louisville, Ky. on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than a dozen others.
Three crew members on board the flight were among those killed. At least 16 different families have reported persons who are unaccounted for. The event is the deadliest plane crash in the history of UPS.
After the accident took place Tuesday night, UPS halted package sorting operations at its Worldport air cargo hub at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
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On Wednesday morning, UPS canceled its “Second Day Air” sort operation at the package sorting facility, with hub and ramp employees told not report to work. The Second Day Air service provides guaranteed two-day service for business shipments.
“As a result [of the incident], scheduled delivery times for air and international packages may be affected,” UPS said in a service bulletin late Tuesday.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Wednesday morning in response to the crash. Beshear said during a Wednesday update that the number of fatalities could grow “by at least one.”
“We hope it doesn’t grow by too many more,” Beshear said. “I believe by this afternoon, we’ll have a pretty good grasp, both of the number of fatalities and—if there are any—the number of missing persons that we’re still looking for.”
The UPS MD-11 aircraft, flight no. 2976, was departing from the Louisville hub before crashing at approximately 5:15 p.m. Eastern time. The flight was destined for Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
After the crash took place late Tuesday, the Louisville airport cancelled all departing flights. Airport operations slowly resumed Wednesday morning, although they are hampered by a major backlog of delayed flights and only one runway currently in operation.
More than 200 first responders were on the scene after the incident, including local fire and police, as well as the state’s National Guard and Homeland Security officials, Beshear said. Beshear established an emergency relief fund to help families affected by the incident.
Multiple local businesses near the explosion were directly impacted, according to Beshear, including Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts. The accident narrowly missed a local restaurant and a major Ford manufacturing plant nearby, which halted production following the crash.
UPS said it is engaged with the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation of the accident and are staying in close contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The package delivery company is working with state and local authorities on response efforts.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into the crash, and is expected to host a media briefing Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. The FAA is also investigating.
Videos taken by onlookers showed flames on the plane’s left wing on the runway, with the aircraft then barely lifting off the ground before crashing and exploding into a huge fireball. Fire and debris quickly spread over an industrial area near the end of the runway.
The plane had roughly 38,000 gallons of fuel on board, according to officials.
“We are terribly saddened by the accident tonight in Louisville. Our heartfelt thoughts are with everyone involved,” the company said in a statement. “UPS is committed to the safety of our employees, our customers and the communities we serve. This is particularly true in Louisville, home to our airline and thousands of UPSers.”
UPS had two fatal plane crashes in company history prior to the incident. In September 2010, a Boeing 747-400F caught fire in flight. The plane crashed near Dubai, killing both crew members on board.
In August 2013, a cargo plane that had departed from the Louisville airport crashed near its destination of Birmingham, Ala. That plane, an Airbus A300-600F, was found to have descended at an unsafe altitude, crashing and killing both members on board. That federal investigation found pilot fatigue and plane instability as factors in the crash.
UPS has a major footprint in Louisville, serving as the city’s largest employer with more than 20,000 employees across its air, ground and supply chain operations. The Worldport hub is the company’s largest package-handling facility worldwide, processing 2 million packages daily. More than 300 flights take off and land from the facility every day.
The hub covers 5.2 million square feet at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
As of Dec. 31, 2024, UPS owned and operated 29 Boeing MD-11 planes. In total, the company had 291 aircraft, as well as 243 leased or operated by others.
