Honolulu-bound UPS plane crashes in Kentucky, killing at least 7

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KENTUCKY TRANSPORTATION CABINET via NEW YORK TIMES

This image provided by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet shows the aftermath of a plane crash near the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville, Ky., today. Data from Flightradar24, a tracking platform, showed that a UPS plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, bound for Honolulu took off from the airport shortly after 5 p.m. and it reached an altitude of just 175 feet before swiftly descending.

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JEFF FAUGHENDER / USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS

Smoke rises from the wreckage of a UPS MD-11 cargo jet after it crashed on departure from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky today.

At least seven people were killed when a Honolulu-bound UPS cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff near the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky on Tuesday evening, the Kentucky governor said.

Two businesses near the airport were hit by the plane, the governor, Andy Beshear, said. A billowing cloud of black smoke rose from the site of the crash as dozens of federal, state and local emergency agencies rushed to the scene.

“Anybody who has seen the images and the video knows how violent this crash is,” Beshear said.

The cargo plane, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 bound for Honolulu, climbed to 175 feet before swiftly descending shortly after taking off at 5:14 p.m., Beshear said.

Two businesses were directly hit by the plane: a waste company and an auto parts store. Beshear said two employees at the auto parts store were unaccounted for. It was unclear if there were any customers at the shop when it was hit.

Joey Garber was in his office at the store, Grade A Auto Parts, on Tuesday afternoon when the power went out and the building shook.

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“Then we heard a bunch of explosions,” said Garber, the store’s chief operating officer. He ran outside and saw flames and plumes of black smoke engulfing the site of the company’s scrap metal department, which contains several buildings and is where the plane hit.

“A bunch of people were running out that were inside those buildings,” he said.

Garber said an employee who safely escaped one of the buildings hit by the crash told him the power went out and someone suddenly screamed, “Everyone run, it’s coming right at us!”

Employees and customers in one of the buildings had to escape through a back window, Garber said. As of Tuesday evening, three of the company’s employees remained missing, Garber said. It was unclear how many customers were on-site at the time of the crash. The business typically sees as many as 200 to 250 customers a day, said Sean Garber, the company’s chief executive and Joey Garber’s father.

Shelby Shircliff, who works at the waste company that was hit, said no one was at the site at the time of the crash, though the business did have a pet cat that was most likely there. The company, which was previously called Kentucky Petroleum Recycling, is now run by GFL Environmental.

Donald Anderson, of Louisville, rode a bicycle to a reunification center seeking information about his girlfriend. The two of them were collecting scrap metal earlier Tuesday, and his girlfriend said she could run to the Louisville petroleum recycling center to cash in some of the scrap. That was around 4:30 p.m. Anderson has not heard from her since.

“I’m very worried,” Anderson said. It is “very unusual not to hear from her.”

Beshear expressed relief that the nearby Ford Motor plant, which employs about 3,000 people, was not hit by the plane. “With the number of employees working there, it’s a blessing,” Beshear said.

Beshear said no hazardous materials were ignited by the crash, but a shelter-in-place order was issued for a mile around the site.

While the fire has not been contained, firefighters have made “some headway,” said Edward “Jody” Meiman, the executive director for Louisville Metro Emergency Services.

Footage of the crash that was broadcast on local television showed black smoke billowing skyward near the airport. According to one video, the plane appeared to be on fire as it traveled down the runway. The plane struggled to climb, then crashed, creating an enormous fireball.

“This is an active scene with fire and debris,” the police said on social media. They also asked people to avoid the area.

Only a few travelers waited for rides at Muhammad Ali airport later Tuesday night as a row of police cruisers lined the curb.

The area where the crash occurred is largely industrial. The City Council member who represents the area, Betsy Ruhe, said UPS was one of the economic backbones of the city.

Louisville is home to UPS’ main air hub, which it calls Worldport. The company owns or operates 291 aircraft, according to a company filing. Last year, UPS on average delivered more than 22 million packages a day.

“This strongly affects my district and it is a tragedy,” said Ruhe, whose cousin works at UPS. “We all know somebody who works at UPS and they’re all texting their friends, their family, to make sure they’re safe. Sadly, some of those texts are going to go unanswered.”

Bethany Adams said she was driving to her Pilates class after work when she noticed an ominous cloud in the sky.

“It looked like it could spout several tornadoes,” Adams said.

The Louisville airport said that its airfield was closed after an “aircraft incident” had occurred.

There have been at least three crashes, including two with fatalities, involving UPS planes since 2006. The most recent crash came in 2013, when a plane departing Louisville crashed short of the runway in Birmingham, Alabama, killing its two pilots.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company

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