Fatalities reach 7 in Louisville airport UPS plane crash
A UPS plane crashed near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport Nov. 4.
According to Gov. Andy Beshear and Officer Jonathan Biven of the Louisville Airport Police Deptartment, there are at least seven fatalities.
Beshear said there are also 11 injuries ― and he thinks those numbers could grow.
“We have virtually every single fire, police and emergency response group responding right now to what you’re seeing.” Beshear said. “I can confirm that there was no specifically hazardous cargo on board of the plane that would create an environmental issue for those around the site, but the impact and where it impacted could create those types of situations.
“So, please if there is a shelter in place, follow it.”
The shelter in place is anything north of the airport to the Ohio River, including Old Louisville, South Louisville and downtown.
The Nov. 4 crash marks the deadliest plane crash since UPS Airlines was founded in 1988. Prior to the crash in Louisville, UPS Airlines had two deadly crashes ― both of which resulted in two fatalities.
Beshear named two businesses that he said were directly affected by the crash: Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts.
“It looks like they were hit pretty directly,” Beshear said of Kentucky Petroleum Recycling.
As for Grade A Auto Parts, Beshear said: “They’ve accounted for all of their employees but two. But they do not know how many other individuals, customers or others could have been on site at the time. Because of the nature of these facilities, it may be some time before we can account for everyone or know that no one else was on the grounds.”
UPS reported the plane, an MD-11, was headed for Honolulu with three crew members on board. UPS said family members seeking information should call 800-631-0604.
The MD-11 has three engines ― one mounted under each wing and one mounted under its tail. The jet, which was first launched in 1990, hasn’t carried a passenger flight since 2014. It remains active as a cargo plane. In February 2023, the president of UPS told supply chain industry publication Freight Waves that the MD-11 was being phased out in favor of newer Boeing planes.
According to simpleflying.com, in September, UPS had 24 active MD-11s and two in maintenance.
The airport is currently closed and the TSA security checkpoint is temporarily suspended.
“Passengers scheduled to depart from or arrive to SDF this evening and tomorrow should closely monitor their flight status via their airline’s website or mobile app,” the airport said in a statement.
A shelter-in-place order has also been issued stretching from the area around the airport northward to the Ohio River, according to a LENSAlert message issued around 6 p.m. Areas south of Outer Loop were cleared from shelter in place around 7:15 p.m.
The public is advised to avoid the area and avoid the smoke, if possible.
UPS’s largest and main air hub globally, UPS Worldport, is located in Louisville and sees about 360 flights each day, The Courier Journal previously reported.
The last major plane crash at Muhammad Ali/Standiford Field occurred Sept. 28, 1953, when a C-46 carrying soldiers from Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, to Fort Knox, crashed upon landing. The plane was one of five operated by Resort Airlines and chartered by the U.S. Army.
Here’s what we know about today’s crash:
9:10 p.m. 10 patients arrive at UofL Health
UofL Health received 10 patients related to the incident at the airport.
Per UofL Health:
Two are at UofL Health – UofL Hospital in the Burn Center in critical condition and two additional were treated with non-life-threatening injuries;
Three patients with non-life-threatening injuries were treated at UofL Health – Mary & Elizabeth Hospital;
Two patients with non-life-threatening injuries were treated at UofL Health – South Hospital;
One patient with non-life-threatening injuries was treated at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital.
8:57 p.m. JCPS closed
Jefferson County Public Schools announced it will be closed Nov. 5. Students are not expected to do instructional work remotely and employees are not expected to report to work, the school district reported.
“Due to the necessary shelter-in-place order issued by the city following this evening’s tragic plane crash, all JCPS schools will be closed … Nov. 5,” JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said in a statement. “This will operate like a snow day, with no online instruction.”
8:55 UPS halts Worldport operations
UPS announced it would halt Worldport operations.
“We are terribly saddened by the accident tonight in Louisville,” UPS said in a statement. “Our heartfelt thoughts are with everyone involved. 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.”We are engaged with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the accident and are staying in close contact with the Federal Aviation Administration. We will work tirelessly with state and local authorities on response efforts.”As a result of the accident, we are halting operations tonight at Worldport. The Next Day Air sort has been cancelled and employees should not report to work tonight.”
8:45 p.m. Greenberg to speak on plane crash
Louisville mayor Craig Greenberg plans to address the media at 9 p.m. Watch it here.
Update: Greenberg will address the media at 10 p.m.
8:25 p.m. NTSB will lead crash investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the cause of the crash, which remains unclear as of the evening of Nov. 4, officials said.
“We still do not have complete details on how this tragedy occurred,” Gov. Andy Beshear said.
Beshear said he has been in contact with the chair of the board, however.
Louisville Metro Police Chief Paul Humphrey reiterated that details about the crash’s cause will originate from the NTSB.
“The NTSB will be leading the investigation, so as of right now, we will not be able to answer any questions related to the cause of this crash until the NTSB is able to give us more information,” Humphrey said.
8:10 p.m. “We have planes going over our house from UPS all the time”: Neighbors react to crash
Elizabeth Owens, 35, first spotted the smoke from the airplane crash around 5:30 p.m. and initially she just thought it was a storm cloud.
Then, it moved into her neighborhood.
Before the sun went down, the smoke surrounded her home.
Elizabeth Owens took this photo of her backyard on Nov. 4 shortly after a UPS plane crashed at Muhammad Ali International Airport. Owens lives about 3 miles from the airport.
“I just saw the smoke just coming up pretty fast from the trees, and then it just spread out further, and it just kept going for over an hour,” Owens told The Courier Journal in a phone interview.
Owens lives about 3 miles west of Muhammad Ali International Airport off of St. Andrews Church Road near Gagle Avenue. She spent Tuesday evening sheltering in place with her husband and 11-year-old son. Her family is used to seeing airplanes fly overhead, but she never expected something like this to happen so close to her house.
“… We have planes going over our house from UPS all the time,” Owens said. “It’s been kind of scary because of how close it was. It kind of brings those fears to mind that I didn’t really have before, because I’ve never been this close to something so serious that’s happened.”
7:58 p.m. UPS driver reacts to crash
Damon Fortner, 58, a long-haul UPS truck driver, told USA TODAY he was driving near the airport to pick up a load of packages when he saw the plane fly over a nearby road. “That’s awful low,” he said he thought.
Seconds later it exploded, barely 100 yards from where he stopped his pickup. He watched the plane take down telephone poles and power lines as it left a trail of fire.
“It blew up. And it just kept on. All you could hear was stuff blowing up, and black smoke everywhere,” he said. “You could feel the heat off it.”
Just after 7 p.m., Fortner and a coworker, wearing brown UPS uniforms, were standing by their pickups farther away, waiting for word from their bosses. They had been supposed to drive a truck to Boston overnight. Now, everything was grounded. As he waited, Fortner pulled up his phone, showing photos he snapped of black smoke filling the sky near his truck just hours earlier.
“I’ve never in my life seen anything like it,” he said, shaking his head. “Don’t ever want to see anything like it.”
All he could think about were the poor souls who were on the plane, he said. “It tears me up.”
— Chris Kenning, USA TODAY
7:52 p.m. Beshear: “Do not be the reasons first responders cannot get to (others)”
Beshear warned people against going to the site of the crash. “There may be people who still need to be rescued,” he said. “Do not be the reason first responders cannot get to them.”
7:50 p.m. Greenberg traveling back to Louisville
Mayor Craig Greenberg is on his way back to Louisville from a vacation and is expected to arrive by 9 p.m.
7:43 p.m.: LMPD opens Victim Reunification area
LMPD posted in a statement to its X account that it would be opening up its training academy for victim reunification at 2911 Taylor Blvd.
“Our Victim Services Unit and Chaplains will be present,” LMPD said.
7:40 p.m. Health Department those under shelter-in-place to turn off air in-take systems.
Per the local health department, “if your home or business is within the shelter-in-place area, please turn off any air in-take systems as soon as possible.”
7:32 p.m. Heartbreaking images’: U.S. Secretary of Transportation responds to crash
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy shared multiple videos of the plane crash on X, including “Heartbreaking images coming out of Kentucky tonight.”
7:30 p.m.: Beshear addresses Louisville plane crash
Gov. Andy Beshear and emergency management officials plan to address the media at 7:30 p.m.
Follow along here.
7:25 p.m. ‘My heart ached for the people in the plane’: Reaction from inside Ali airport
Commercial airline passengers and retail employees inside Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport sheltered in place the evening of Nov. 4 while the airfield remained closed in the wake of the UPS cargo plane crash.
University of Louisville nursing student SJ Matthews, 21, was inside a restaurant near the airport when the crash occurred around 5:15 p.m.
“We were getting food, we walked outside, and we just saw a big cloud of dust. You’d think the world was ending,” Matthews told The Courier Journal while he waited to find out when he could head home to North Carolina. “I was just shocked, and then I find out a plane crashed and blew up, then my heart ached for the people in the plane.”
Danielle Seba, who works in customer service for a company that manages several souvenir shops inside the airport, said her husband was set to work a night shift at the UPS Worldport when they heard about the crash.
“He has to check to see if he is able to go to work tonight,” Seba said. “He was scheduled to go in at 9:30 p.m.”
Seba, meanwhile, is waiting out the shelter in place order at the Churchill Downs retail store near the entrance to the airport’s security checkpoint.
“For a little while they shut down TSA and had the gate pulled down. They had people piled up here in front of the rotunda area waiting,” Seba said “We have coworkers working on the other side (of the checkpoint). They were showing us on their end what was going on.”
7:20 p.m. Flight restriction around Louisville
The FAA has issued a temporary flight restriction across a five-mile radius of Louisville’s airspace. Only relief aircraft operations acting under the direction of the Louisville Airport may fly in that zone. The restriction will remain in place until 7 a.m. on Nov. 5.
7:15 p.m.: McGarvey: “Our community was rocked”
Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Kentucky, said he spoke with the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, but complete details on how the crash occurred are still being collected.
“Tonight, our community was rocked by a devastating plane crash at the Louisville airport,” McGarvey said in the statement. “My heart breaks for the pilots, crew, and their families, and I’m praying for everyone impacted. I’m grateful for the bravery of our first responders as they continue their work throughout the night tonight to respond quickly and heroically to this horrific incident.
“We … will continue to stay in contact with state, local, and federal authorities to get answers and do what we can to help all those affected.”
7:10 p.m. Air traffic controllers working weeks without pay to ensure safety
The FAA said nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers are working without pay to “ensure the safety of more than 50,000 daily operations across the national airspace system (NAS),” according to a post on its X account Oct. 31.
“As we head into this weekend, a surge in callouts is straining staffing levels at multiple facilities, leading to widespread impacts across the NAS,” the FAA wrote. “Currently, half of our Core 30 facilities are experiencing staffing shortages, and nearly 80 percent of air traffic controllers are absent at New York–area facilities. After 31 days without pay, air traffic controllers are under immense stress and fatigue. …”
7:05 p.m. TARC services delayed
TARC public transit announced its services will be suspended tonight.
“Effective immediately, due to the shelter in place issued, all TARC service has been suspended for the remainder of the evening,” the transit authority said. “TARC3 is working with current passengers with destinations outside the shelter in place to get them to their destinations, all pickups for later this evening have been suspended.”
7 p.m. ACC field hockey championships delayed
The University of Louisville is hosting the 2025 ACC field hockey championship at Trager Stadium. The fourth quarterfinal game of the day between No. 3 seed Wake Forest and No. 6 seed Syracuse was supposed to start at 6 p.m.
Nearly two hours after its start time, the ACC posted on its X account that match would not be played Oct. 4. ‘Updates will be provided as available,” the post said.
The ACC did not say when the match will be rescheduled. An ACC spokesperson told The Courier Journal both teams currently remain sheltered in place.
6:55 p.m. Plane likely didn’t include local teamster members, per Local 89
The majority of UPS’s thousands of hourly employees that work at UPS Worldport are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union. A spokesperson for Teamsters Local 89, the local union that represents the Louisville based workers, told The Courier Journal since the plane was an outbound plane “to the best of our knowledge none of our members were anywhere near it.”
Additionally, the spokesperson said the workers still at UPS Worldport are sheltering in place, largely due to health concerns related to the smoke and the power is off at UPS Worldport.
“Aside from the smoke, we don’t believe any of our members are in any immediate danger,” the spokesperson said via text at 6:43 p.m.
6:50 p.m. Local businesses in area of crash
The area of the crash is largely an industrial zone, lacking much, if any, residential homes.
Businesses in the area, which collectively employ thousands of people, include:
Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant
UPS Flight Training Center
UPS Worldport Freight Facility
Stooges Bar & Grill
Grade-A Auto Parts
Quantum Ink
Central Farm Supply Kentucky.
Many of those were open with employees on site at the time of the crash.
6:45 p.m. Greenberg provides update on WAVE
Around 6:30 p.m., Mayor Craig Greenberg called into WAVE TV’s live broadcast and said, to his understanding, the plane that crashed was carrying about 280,000 gallons of fuel. He said he had limited information about how the crash affected the surrounding area but expressed concern about the location, noting there may be nearby fuel tanks or other flammable materials — a factor that prompted the earlier shelter-in-place order.
Greenberg added that he had been out of town but was returning to Louisville to be briefed on the situation.
6:40 p.m. McConnell thanks first responders on scene
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement that he and his team are monitoring developments around the crash and are in touch with local, state, and federal authorities.
“Thank you to the first responders on the scene,” McConnell said in a statement posted on X. “I encourage everyone in the area to follow emergency and law enforcement guidance.”
6:35 p.m. All safe at Ford Louisville Assembly Plant
Everybody is safe at the Ford Louisville Assembly Plant off Fern Valley Road, which is the workplace of about 3,000 people, UAW Local 862 leadership.Local 862 said the power was cut to the plant as a precaution. As of right now, production is down and workers are sheltering in the plant. The flight did not hit the Ford facility.
Ford Louisville Assembly Plant has started evacuating per the UAW Local 862 president Todd Dunn, out of a safety precaution, not because of immediate danger.
“We’re getting everybody out now,” Dunn said.
Ford LAP is also canceling skilled trades work for the night, per Dunn.
6:30 p.m.: Beshear en route to Louisville
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear has been made aware of the plane crash near the airport.
“First responders are onsite, and we will share more information as available,” he posted on his X account. “Please pray for the pilots, crew and everyone affected. We will share more soon.”
Within 18 minutes, he sent a second tweet stating: “The situation is serious. Please pray for the families affected. …”
6:25 p.m. Ali airport closed, shelter in place ordered
The security line at Muhammad Ali Airport was empty following the crash.
“Aircraft incident confirmed at SDF,” the airport posted on its X account. “At this time the airfield is closed, more details to come.”
A shelter in place was issued within a five-mile radius of the airport.
“Remain away from the area until further notice,” an emergency alert from Louisville Metro Government to residents’ smartphones said.
Officer Jonathan Biven of the Louisville Airport Police Department provided an update around 9:30 p.m. that all departing flights for the night were canceled.
“We’re asking anyone who is traveling out of SDF airport tonight and tomorrow, they should contact their airline for flight status,” Biven said.
6:20 p.m.: Pilots Association, UPS in midst of ongoing negotiation
UPS and the Independent Pilots Association, the union representing more than 3,200 UPS pilots, are in the midst of an ongoing negotiation over a new labor contract, The Courier Journal previously reported. This negotiation which is expected to deal with items from benefits, pay, travel lodging and more is also likely to delve into the topic of crew time worked as well. UPS pilots previously urged for more rest time for cargo crews back in 2014.
The pilots union declined to provide comment on the Nov. 4 when asked by The Courier Journal. The union spokesperson did however say that the union has committees that have prepared for situations like this and are working to support its members in this time.
6:15 PM: FAA says plane was headed for Honolulu
The FAA confirmed on its X account that UPS Flight 2976 crashed around 5:15 p.m. The airplane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, was leaving the Louisville airport and headed to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu.
“The NTSB will lead the investigation and will provide all updates. This information is preliminary and subject to change.”
In a statement, UPS said: “At approximately 5:20 PM ET tonight, UPS Flight 2976 from Louisville, KY, to Honolulu, an MD-11 with three crewmembers onboard, was involved in an accident in Louisville. At this time, we have not confirmed any injuries/casualties.
UPS will release more facts as they become available, but the National Transportation Safety Board is in charge of the investigation and will be the primary source of information about the official investigation.”
