UPS plane crashes near Louisville international airport, injuries reported

A UPS cargo plane crashed on Tuesday evening shortly after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, sparking a large fire and prompting officials to shut down the airfield and order nearby residents to shelter in place.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said UPS Flight 2976, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F bound for Honolulu, went down around 5:15 p.m. local time (Nov. 4) shortly after departure.

The airport is home to UPS Worldport, a global hub for the delivery firm’s air cargo operations and its largest package handling facility in the world.

Videos posted on social media showed thick black smoke rising near Fern Valley and Grade Lane, just south of the airport, as emergency crews rushed to the scene.

The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) said multiple agencies were responding to an “active scene with fire and debris.”

“Injuries reported,” the department said in a brief post on X, formerly Twitter. Officers later closed Grade Lane indefinitely between Stooges and Crittenden as rescue operations continued.

The Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport confirmed that an aircraft was involved in an incident and that the airfield had been temporarily closed while emergency services worked at the site.

Local media outlets, citing airport officials and witnesses, said the crash involved a UPS Airlines cargo plane, one of several that operate out of the company’s massive logistics hub located on airport grounds.

Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the aircraft — registered as N259UP — had departed Louisville at 5:10 p.m. and climbed briefly before disappearing from radar.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said they would investigate the cause of the crash.

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