Death Toll In UPS Cargo Plane Crash Rises To 9

The death toll in the Tuesday evening crash of a United Parcel Service cargo plane, near Louisville, Kentucky’s Muhammed Ali International Airport, has risen to nine. At least 15 people were also injured, and at least 16 are still missing, WLKY reports. The crash caused an explosion that ignited a large fire and filled the sky with a massive plume of smoke Tuesday night. 

According to Mayor Craig Greenberg, the three crew members on board the UPS McDonnell Douglas MD-11 were among those declared dead. If there’s any good news, it’s that as of Wednesday morning, 13 of the 15 people hospitalized with injuries have already been released. Sadly, two more remain in critical condition. 

The plane was reportedly headed to Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport before it crashed, and due to the long flight plan, it was carrying about 38,000 gallons of fuel when it took off. With so much fuel on board, the crash caused a large fire that spread quickly, igniting other nearby facilities, including a recycling center. It took more than 100 emergency responders to fight the blaze over the course of about six hours, but by 11 p.m. Tuesday night, they finally managed to get the blaze under control.

According to the Associated Press, Louisville is UPS’s largest package distribution hub, and flights in and out of the city still haven’t resumed fully, as emergency crews continue their search for those still missing.

Video of the crash shows flames coming from the plane’s left wing as it took off before it crashed, causing a fire that the AP reports engulfed nearly an entire city block. As it went down, the plane reportedly came close to crashing into a restaurant before hitting the roof of one building and finally landing near the recycling center. A convention center and Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant were also nearby. So while it’s tragic that nine people have already lost their lives, the death toll could easily have been much higher if things had gone slightly differently.

UPS paused operations at its Worldport distribution center, and as of Wednesday morning, that pause was still in effect. According to the AP, the facility reportedly employs thousands of workers, operates about 300 flights per day and handles more than 400,000 packages an hour. As a result, the temporary shutdown will likely delay the delivery of all sorts of packages, but considering nine people just lost their lives, the people waiting for their packages can get over it. 

Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport has reportedly reopened at least one runway and, as of Wednesday morning, was prioritizing flights that were canceled Tuesday night, leaving passengers stuck at the airport overnight. Anyone flying through Louisville today should expect continued delays.

As aviation attorney Pablo Rojas told the AP, it’s hard to tell whether the pilot saw the flames prior to the crash, and even if the crew did notice, it could have been even more dangerous to abort the takeoff, saying, “There’s very little to contain the flames, and really the plane itself is almost acting like a bomb because of the amount of fuel.”