At least seven people were killed and 11 were wounded on Tuesday after a United Parcel Service plane crashed near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
UPS confirmed that the aircraft belonged to the company, identifying it as UPS Flight 2976 from Louisville to Honolulu, and that it had crashed shortly after takeoff, setting several structures on fire. The plane was an MD-11 with three crewmembers onboard.
“The situation is serious. Please pray for the families affected. I’m headed to Louisville now,” Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) said in a post on X.
The Louisville Metro Police Department said the crash resulted in “fire and debris” being scattered across the affected area. A shelter-in-place order was issued for everyone within a 5-mile radius of the airport.
“LMPD and multiple other agencies are responding to reports of a [plane] crash near Fern Valley and Grade Lane. Grade lane will be closed indefinitely between Stooges and Crittenden. Injuries reported,” a short statement from the LMPD said.
Videos of the crash quickly circulated online, showing the plane exploding in a massive fireball across a wide area. Though UPS didn’t confirm any casualties, the massive fireball suggests that all crew members were killed.
The roughly 8 1/2 hour straight flight to Honolulu explains the massive fireball caused by the aircraft, as it would’ve been loaded with tens of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel.
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The fireball largely hit an industrial zone, containing businesses such as Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant, UPS Flight Training Center, and UPS Worldport Freight Facility, according to USA Today.
The crash marks UPS’s first fatal plane crash in over 12 years. The company has suffered two fatal plane crashes in its history previously, one near Dubai in September 2010, and another in August 2013, near Birmingham, Alabama. The 2013 crash had taken off from the same Louisville airport.
