At least 7 dead, 11 injured in UPS plane crash and explosion at Kentucky airport

A UPS cargo plane crashed and exploded during takeoff from Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport on Tuesday, killing at least seven people and injuring 11 others, authorities said. Four of the fatalities were individuals on the ground, not aboard the aircraft.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11, manufactured in 1991, was departing for Honolulu from UPS Worldport when it crashed at approximately 5:15 p.m. Eyewitness video captured flames erupting from the plane’s left wing and a trail of smoke before the aircraft briefly lifted off the ground, then crashed and exploded in a massive fireball.

“Anybody who has seen the images, the video, knows how violent this crash is,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said during a news conference. Officials indicated that some of the injured suffered “very significant” injuries. The status of the three crew members aboard the plane remains unclear.

Louisville Metro Police Chief Paul Humphrey described a hazardous scene that would take time to secure. “We don’t know how long it’s going to take to render that scene safe,” he said.

The crash appears to have severely damaged nearby businesses. Governor Beshear noted that Kentucky Petroleum Recycling “appeared to be hit pretty directly,” with a nearby auto parts operation also affected. The violent impact left the area resembling “a war zone,” according to Tom Brooks Jr., who runs a metal recycling business down the street from the crash site.

“This was massive. I mean, it literally looked like a war zone,” Brooks said.

The airport was immediately shut down following the crash and is not expected to resume operations until Wednesday morning. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation and has dispatched 28 personnel to the scene.

The disaster has prompted a desperate search for information among worried family members. Eric Richardson stood outside a police training academy where people gathered Tuesday night, hoping to learn the fate of his girlfriend who had been at a metal recycling business near the explosion and wasn’t answering her phone.

“We don’t even want to think about anything but the best,” said Bobby Whelan, Richardson’s friend, who had left the area just minutes before the explosion. “All our friends were there.”

The impact of the crash was felt well beyond the immediate area. Destyn Mitchell, working as a host at an Outback restaurant about a 15 minutes away, described hearing a loud boom that rattled the establishment. “The mood in the restaurant was very shaken up,” Mitchell said. “Everyone is really concerned. People who just sat down to eat got up and left in under 30 minutes and packed up their food because they wanted to hurry up and get home.”

Aviation attorney Pablo Rojas, analyzing videos of the incident, noted the aircraft appeared to be struggling to gain altitude with a fire blazing on its left side near one of its engines. Given the substantial fuel load for the long-haul flight to Hawaii, the fire’s rapid spread was inevitable.

“Really the plane itself is almost acting like a bomb because of the amount of fuel,” Rojas explained.

The crash has forced UPS to halt package sorting operations at its Worldport hub, though the company has not indicated when operations might resume. The facility is UPS’s largest package handling center, employing thousands of workers, handling 300 daily flights, and sorting more than 400,000 packages hourly.

“We all know somebody who works at UPS,” said Louisville Metro Council member Betsy Ruhe. “And they’re all texting their friends, their family, trying to make sure everyone is safe. Sadly, some of those texts are probably going to go unanswered.”

The Louisville airport is situated approximately 10 minutes from downtown Louisville, which sits along the Ohio River bordering Indiana. The surrounding area includes residential neighborhoods, a water park, and several museums.