A UPS cargo plane crashed and exploded in Louisville, killing at least nine people in a fiery disaster that also left 11 others injured and more than a dozen unaccounted for, officials said on Wednesday.
The aircraft went down on Tuesday around 5:15 p.m., shortly after it departed from UPS Worldport at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport for Honolulu. All three people onboard were killed in the crash, as were at least six people on the ground, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed. He warned that officials “expect that number will continue to rise” as search and recovery efforts continue.
“First responders are on the scene now that it’s daylight again. The coroner has been working through the night and is there,” Greenberg told CNN, adding that the National Transportation Safety Board would “be arriving shortly in Louisville.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear posted on X Wednesday morning that 16 families now gathered at a reunification center “have reported loved ones unaccounted for.” And, of those injured, ten are being treated at UofL Health, the hospital system told CNN. Two were in critical condition at the burn center while eight other patients were being treated for injuries and are expected to survive.
Video of the incident shows a fire on the left wing, and then a thick plume of smoke trailing the plane before it explodes into a massive fireball. The McDonnell Douglas MD-11, in preparation for its approximately 8.5-hour direct flight, was carrying 38,000 gallons of jet fuel when it went down.
Flames from the crash, shortly before sundown, subsequently triggered a string of fires along an industrial corridor adjacent to the airport, forcing authorities to stop flight operations through the night. Beshear said stricken facilities on the ground included a Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts, just south of the airport.
In a post on X, Greenberg said one runway at the Louisville Airport has since reopened. He added that a shelter-in-place order issued in the aftermath of the crash has been reduced to “a quarter of a mile radius surrounding the crash site.”
An investigation into the matter is ongoing.
With News Wire Services
