What you need to know
• MD-11 plane: A UPS freight plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Louisville airport, leaving a fiery trail of destruction through businesses and roads where a massive plume of thick black smoke now stretches for miles, videos from CNN affiliate WAVE show.
• Reported fatalities and injuries: At least four people have died and 11 were injured, police said Tuesday, warning those numbers could climb as the investigation continues. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said earlier some of the injuries are “very significant.” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg wrote on X this evening that the city has “every emergency agency responding to the scene.”
• Status of crew unknown: Beshear said the status of the crew on board the plane is still uncertain and they are working to reach impacted families as soon as possible. “Anybody who has seen the images in the video know how violent this crash is, and there are a lot of families that are going to be waiting and wondering for a period of time,” he said.
• Crash investigation: The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash of UPS flight 2976. The NTSB will lead the probe, the FAA said Tuesday. The safety board announced it is launching a “go-team” to investigate, which is scheduled to arrive in Kentucky on Wednesday.
Flights suspended, passengers evacuated after UPS plane crash at Louisville airport
Josh Mitcham was boarding for his flight at the Louisville International Airport around 5:15 p.m. when a “stay-in-place” order was issued on the plane. He could tell whatever had happened wasn’t good.
“We didn’t really know what happened,” Mitcham told CNN. “The captain came over and said that there had been an accident and that it wasn’t good and that they recommended that we go ahead and get off the plane.”
Mitcham looked out the window and saw dark, cloudy smoke emerge into the sky. At the time he didn’t know where it was coming from, but he soon learned it was smoke from the UPS plane crash.
Mitcham deboarded the plane with passengers and booked another flight for Wednesday afternoon after all arriving and departing flights were temporarily suspended.
The singer and songwriter was headed to London, with a layover in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a 10-day tour in England that starts Thursday. Although his plans were disrupted, he was glad to be safe after the “terrible” crash.”
“There’s some people lost their lives tonight, and, you know, I’m still here,” Mitcham said. “So no matter what happens, I’m good, and the people on my flight are safe, and it could have been a whole lot worse for us. For those people, it was terrible.”
Shelter-in-place order radius surrounding crash site reduced from five miles to one mile, officials say
The shelter-in-place order issued for all locations within five miles of the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport after a plane crashed shortly after take-off has been reduced to a one-mile radius, emergency officials said.
Jody Myman, executive director of Louisville Metro Emergency Services, encouraged people to remain “alert” and to use their local emergency notification system called LENSAlert to receive alerts and warnings.
“As the night goes on, we will not use that outside of that one-mile area,” Myman said at a news briefing Tuesday evening. “So, we encourage people to sign up for LENSAlert. If it expands, we will issue that again.”
Don’t touch debris – report it, airport official says
Officials are asking residents to avoid touching any debris left in the area following the Louisville plane crash and to report it to the city, Officer Jonathan Biven, a spokesperson for the Louisville airport, said at a news conference Tuesday.
Residents are also asked to take photos of the debris, he said, and share them here.
Death toll from UPS plane crash increases to four
Officer Jonathan Biven a public information officer with the Louisville airport, said there are now four deaths as a result of Tuesday’s crash.
“I can confirm a total number of four fatalities,” Biven said.
At least 11 are injured that and have been transported to local hospitals, he added.
Correction: A previous version of this post misspelled officer Biven’s last name.
All departing flights canceled Tuesday night at Louisville airport, officials say
All flights departing Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport are canceled Tuesday night after a UPS plane crashed near the airport, according to airport officials.
“We’re asking anyone who is traveling out of SDF Airport tonight and tomorrow - they should contact their airline for flight status,” according to Officer Jonathan Biven, public information officer for the Louisville airport.
Kentucky's largest school district, located in Louisville, has canceled school Wednesday
The largest school district in Kentucky, located in Louisville, will be closed on Wednesday due to the area’s shelter-in-place order prompted by the UPS plane crash, Jefferson County Public Schools announced.
Officials of JCPS, which has nearly 97,000 students, said the school day Wednesday will “operate like a snow day with no online instruction.” All schools and buildings will be closed and all extracurricular activities and athletics will be canceled, the statement said.
The school had informed employees about the school day being cancelled, citing the “necessary shelter-in-place order,” according to the email obtained by CNN.
“One in every seven students in Kentucky attends school at JCPS,” the school district’s website says.
Watch as a massive fireball is seen after plane crash in Louisville
A giant fireball, along with black smoke, was seen after a UPS plane crashed after taking off from a Louisville airport on Tuesday. The video that CNN geolocated was recorded by a passenger in a vehicle driving near Stooges Bar and Grill.
Louisville plane crash smoke seen on car ride home
Katie Didit, a New Albany, Indiana, resident, was driving home from her job in Louisville when she heard the explosion from the crash.
“I heard a sound similar to a [jake] brake on a semi but I just assumed it was heavy Louisville traffic ahead,” Didit told CNN.
She thought a large building caught fire, like the deadly factory explosion that occurred in November 2024.
The clouded smoke filled the corner of her windshield and she pulled out her phone to record a video.
Didit said the sky was “completely black” downtown within 10 minutes of capturing the video.
The MD-11 aircraft was once used to carry passengers
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11F was once used to carry passengers, but now is primarily used for cargo operations because of its large capacity and capabilities.
Airline KLM last used the aircraft in 2014 for a passenger flight, but none have been recorded since.
The plane has seen its fair share of incidents over the years, however.
In 1998, as a passenger jet, Swissair flight 111 crashed after an in-flight fire ensued in the area above the flight deck ceiling, leaving pilots with many systems failing. All 215 passengers and 14 crew members died, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A Lufthansa cargo jet crashed on landing at Saudi Arabia in 2010. In 2016, the an MD-11F on another UPS flight experienced a nose gear collapse after overrunning a runway in Seoul.
According to Simple Flying, the MD-11 model did not perform as well as manufacturers hoped. Boeing ended production in 2000 after making 200 planes and the last delivery of the MD-11 was in 2001, Simple Flying reported.
Federal Express, Lufthansa Cargo, UPS and Western Global Airlines all fly the aircraft for cargo needs.
Smoke from UPS plane crash seen on radar
No, that’s not rain. A large smoke plume billowed into the sky after the fiery crash and was even visible on weather radar on an otherwise dry day.
NTSB team heading to Louisville crash site for investigation
A National Transportation Safety Board team is heading to Louisville following a UPS plane crash there Tuesday.
A “go-team” will investigate the incident and is scheduled to arrive Wednesday, the agency said in a post on X.
A news conference on the crash will be held Wednesday, though the agency did not say what time.
Big Four Bridge crossing the Ohio River lit up in yellow lights, honoring UPS flight
The Big Four Bridge connecting Louisville and Jeffersonville, Indiana, over the Ohio River, was lit up in yellow lights Tuesday night in honor of UPS flight 2976, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said on social media.
“This tragedy has touched every corner of our city. As Louisville’s skyline glows in yellow, we’re thinking of the lives lost, the families forever changed, and the entire community that calls Louisville home,” he wrote, accompanying a picture of the bridge.
Video shows moment plane crashes shortly after takeoff
Video source: social media
Video posted to social media appears to show the widebody jet involved in Tuesday’s plane crash struggling to take off as flames spew from what appears to be the left engine under the left wing of the MD-11F, which has three engines.
The video was taken from a distance and a fireball can be seen shortly after takeoff.
The crash occurred likely after the takeoff abort speed known as “V1.” The plane was likely full of fuel, as much as 38,000 gallons, for the more than 8-hour flight to Hawaii.
Evening classes, hockey game canceled at University of Louisville following plane crash
Evening classes at the University of Louisville were canceled Tuesday after a UPS plane crashed near the airport.
Additionally, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced its field hockey game scheduled at the University for Tuesday between Syracuse and Wake Forest was also canceled following the plane crash.
Takeoffs and landings are often the riskiest parts of a flight
Many aviation experts regard takeoffs and landings as the most dangerous parts of any flight.
More than 38,000 gallons of fuel were on the UPS flight that crashed as it was taking off from Louisville’s airport, said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear at a news conference Tuesday evening.
That amount of jet fuel created a very dangerous situation, said Fire Chief Brian O’Neill at the news conference.
“There is a lot of a lot of issues that are going on with being able to surround and try to contain this fire,” O’Neill said.
The plane crashed into an area that houses fuel, further compounding the impact.
Takeoffs and landings are not taken lightly. Pilots are trained and retrained to react if something goes wrong during these key moments.
They are so important, according to Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, that the FAA does not permit any unnecessary conversation or activity below 10,000 feet.
Audio reveals response to "possible explosion"
Broadcastify audio from Louisville firefighters captured the initial response to the plane crash in Kentucky on Tuesday evening.
The audio reveals the fire department being dispatched to a “possible explosion,” as a dispatcher tries to keep collected.
Later, when one person asks how many buildings are on fire, it is detailed that at least two structures were “involved.”
Audio source: Broadcastify
Governor asks for prayers that casualties stay low
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear asked for prayers that the number of victims of the crash stays low while emergency crews continue responding to the crash.
“Let’s pray that the number of Kentuckians, or any other folks that we lost, stays as low as possible,” he said during a Tuesday news conference. So far, authorities have confirmed at least three people are dead following the crash.
“I will tell you, after the tornado in Mayfield, I was standing outside of a factory where I was sure 100 people were dead, and we ended up only losing 13, and that’s a lot of people, but pray. It works. It helps,” Beshear said.
Firefighters dealing with fuel spill as they work to contain fire from plane crash
Louisville Fire Department Chief Brian O’Neill said firefighters are working to contain the fire caused by the plane crash in Louisville, dealing with the initial fuel spill and the spreading fire.
“There is a lot of a lot of issues that are going on with being able to surround and try to contain this fire,” O’Neill said at the governor’s news conference.
The fire chief said off-shift firefighters are working to help contain the fire. “So, rest assured, the entire city is still protected and still covered with plenty of fire safety.”
‘This is a UPS town,’ member of Metro Council says of Louisville
Councilwoman Betsy Ruhe on Tuesday called Louisville, Kentucky, a “UPS town.”
“My cousin’s a UPS pilot,” Ruhe said at a news conference. “My aide’s tennis partner’s a UPS pilot. The intern in my office works overnight at UPS to pay for college.”
She added, “We all know somebody who works at UPS, and they’re all texting their friends, their family, trying to make sure everyone is safe. Sadly, some of those texts are probably going to go unanswered. My heart goes out to those families and those friends.”
The tragedy will hit close to home for many, according to Kentucky state Sen. Keturah Herron.
“I want to acknowledge how jarring it is for the residents of Louisville and the surrounding areas to watch this tragedy hit so close to home,” Herron said Tuesday. “To happen in a place where many of us frequent on a regular basis, that many of us watch our family members and loved ones pass through on a regular basis … it’s very hurtful.”
Firefighters are going from 'building to building' to search for trapped people
Firefighters are working diligently to find people who are trapped after the Louisville plane crash, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said.
“You see these heroic firefighters moving from building to building to building, as fast as they can because if somebody’s trapped, they’re going to get to them,” the governor said.
First responders are also searching areas outside the immediate hazard zone, Beshear said.
