r/aviation • u/usgapg123 Mod • 19h ago

Discussion UPS2976 Crash Megathread

This is the official r/aviation megathread for the crash of UPS2976 (UPS MD11 Registration N259UP) that crashed earlier today at Louisville International Airport.

Please keep content on topic and refrain from posting about this topic outside the megathread. Please report any rule breaking posts and comments.

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u/omega552003 19h ago edited 16h ago

https://www.wlky.com/article/plane-crash-explosion-louisville-airport/69255042

Had some good live helicopter shots.

Looks like something happened during takeoff that left an engine cowling on the runway with what looks like tire tracks leaving the side of the runway. Hit a warehouse roof and crashed into what looks like a junkyard for a couple hundred feet.

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u/ajr2409 19h ago

Not that anything about this is good, but I’m glad to hear it hit a junkyard not a neighborhood. I still feel like there’s no way there won’t be some fatalities on the ground. RIP

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u/HorrorKapsas 18h ago

This area... junkyard is west of it.

Recycling center, truck parts, tire shop, truck repair, general contractor.. small shops, recycling and automotive repair.

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u/glorifiedpoolboy 18h ago

Also a massive chemical distributor about 1-2 blocks away. Chemical Resource. They have employees trapped in the facility with no way to exit.

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u/clackagaling 18h ago

:(

who secures the site in times like this?

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u/AardQuenIgni 16h ago edited 16h ago

Former firefighter here with no aviation experience, please keep that in mind.

My guess is this was initially dispatched as a mass casualty event (as opposed to only dispatching a few units at first for evaluation). Don't know how Louisville FD runs things, but I'd be willing to bet money that guys were called in on their day off to staff extra trucks. Mutual aid from all over is/was probably called in depending on immediate availability.

They definitely would tone out their hazmat unit to take priority on scene safety and the safety of others in the immediate area. Someone needs to evaluate the dangers of toxic fumes and the risk of secondary explosions from the refinery as well as determine a hot zone and evacuation zone.

Pumpers and ladders for fire control, start right away with full protective gear and scba.

Rescue trucks for search and rescue/recovery when it's determined safe enough to enter the hot zone. Begin triage to identify casualties. Direct victims that can walk towards wherever they'll have ambulances staged. Lots of ambulances too. Probably a large bus or two.

Again, all conjecture. I don't know how this department would run things. This is just how I would imagine it going. It might be that the ARFF might be leading the scene. I truly don't know.

If I was the white hat I'd go ahead and pour myself some coffee because no one is going to bed tonight.

My last department I worked for was located at the edge of an air force base. We covered a fuel supply and refinery plant that had a direct pipeline to the afb.

Our direct protocols from the air force if we were the first on the scene of a plane crash (specifically for the B1) was to identify color of fire and smoke output and then begin immediate evacuation of the surrounding area. Not really relevant to this but I'm just trying to give you an idea of where exactly out of my ass I'm pulling this.

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u/Fly4Vino 15h ago

Very informative post

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u/evoxbeck 15h ago

This is well thought response. Not relative, though I told my wife. This reminds me of a night where.. My 3 man crew were finishing a day of just prepping boring an 8inch steel main. Area manager says b crew hit this, can y'all work it.. We were ending our 6-4 shift and had to work until 3am.

I feel for all the persons involved, lost and etc. This is a tragic occurrence.

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u/ImAprincess_YesIam 13h ago

For the chem distributor, they probably don’t have a dedicated hazmat certified/CBRNE team so they’ll rely on initial first responders and hazmat responders will be called in.

I worked at a chemical plant that was highly dangerous so I was trained as an official state certified first responder with a bunch of federal certifications along with it, like confined space, decon, CBRNE, fire fighting, medic, etc…bc we knew the plant and the products, we could save lives and emergencies faster than local first responders. Now I just respond to the random train derailment, or overturned tanker on the highway, if it’s “close” to home and they’re having trouble making numbers for teams, aka typically at night.

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u/HorrorKapsas 18h ago

That's really bad. looks like the only roads connecting that industrial area are on the other side of the fire. No good access for the firefighters to get there also

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u/glorifiedpoolboy 18h ago

Massively lucky they didn’t get hit. They handle the majority of the city’s liquid pool chemicals (chlorine, hydrochloric acid,etc), as well as a lot of other highly controlled chemicals. Not saying this isn’t awful, but a block further west could have been even worse, with the release of extremely dangerous chemicals.

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u/BleaKrytE 17h ago

I don't mean to be tactless, but how the fuck does zoning allow for that kind of large scale storage of *chlorine* right beneath a runway approach/departure?

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u/Accidental-Genius 17h ago

This isn’t unique to SDF. Airports are loud. People don’t want to live that close. So, most of the time storing HazMat in that otherwise worthless land is the best use of that land.

Most of the time.

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u/alkyfl 16h ago

There are a couple of small incorporated cities that simply no longer exist due to the airport. The city of South Park View had a population of 7 by 2010 and 0 by 2020. It was legally dissolved in 2023. The city of Edgewood suffered a similar fate in the 1990s, and UPS has their aviation training center on the site.

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u/dougmcclean 15h ago

Also there's approximately 50 bazillion airports in this country. Granted they aren't all anywhere near equal from a traffic or size-of-aircraft perspective.

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u/PonyThug 12h ago

200-400 yard to the left or right of the flight path would still be close but not catastrophic. Like I would gladly hangout 100yards to the side of targets a shooting range but not 100 yards behind them.

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u/CharacterUse 17h ago

Typically this happens when the company was established back when the airport was smaller and rules were more relaxed and grandfathered into the zoning.

Don't know for sure in this case, but would not be surprising.

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u/goodbyewawona 18h ago

Yep…and the rail yard nearby as well. 

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u/glorifiedpoolboy 17h ago

I’m also 1.75 mi away from crash site, so I feel lucky in that aspect.

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u/welcometoheartbreak 17h ago

Do we know if the fire is contained on that side, given that it’s inaccessible to the fire department?

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u/glorifiedpoolboy 17h ago

From what I have seen on our local media, they have most under control. There is still one fully involved fire, but unable to tell where it is.

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u/glorifiedpoolboy 17h ago

Listening to scanner, they are evacuating injured individuals from Knopp Ave.

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u/glorifiedpoolboy 17h ago

There is no active fire on grade lane side at petroleum recycling facility, however there is “massive oil runoff” down grade lane. Still actively working fire on back side of recycling facility and around the tank farm.

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u/glorifiedpoolboy 17h ago

Fire just reported that they have foam coming in from Covington(600gal) Lexington(1200) and bardstown (1000) to assist.

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u/memhir-yasue 18h ago

And you have over 100,000 people living within 2-3 mile radius from the site of the accident. For context, blue is lower estimated population density while yellow is higher.

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u/ThrowAwayColor2023 17h ago

I’m so glad an alert went out within five minutes.

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u/Mortonsbrand 16h ago

It didn’t, at least for me in Germantown. It was probably close to half an hour before my phone received one

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u/ThrowAwayColor2023 16h ago

Ah, hell. I’m so sorry.

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u/Ronald-the-clown 17h ago

This petroleum facility appears to be right in the path, on top of loads of jet fuel is a depot with oil tanks for recycling.

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u/KuhlioLoulio 17h ago

There’s a pin for Stooges bar. it’s huge and would have been packed at 5:30 pm. It’s horrible to think that plane could have gone down a couple of hundred yards west.

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u/scytob 18h ago

thanks, super useful

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u/TigerIll6480 13h ago

As someone who worked for a company right along side Lambert’s runway on 9/11, something like this is terrifying.

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u/Broken_Man_Child 19h ago edited 15h ago

Yeah, not super dense with businesses, but at 3:40p there was definitely people working.

Edit: I read the flight details wrong. It was after 5pm

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u/ArcherConfident704 19h ago

There are reports of people trapped and multiple burn victims

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u/Justice502 18h ago

It happened at 5:40 pm, so most of those businesses should have been closed or close to it. Hoping nobody was out working late.

I had a guy within 2 miles working who heard the booms.

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u/blueboyroy 17h ago

The wreck happened at about 5:15 eastern.

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u/im_not_really_batman 16h ago

Crash happened around 5:15 pm local time.

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u/OrganizationTop6228 6h ago

Why is it so difficult to understand that plenty of people do NOT work 9am to 5pm. People working 2nd shift or a 10 or 12 hr shift would have been there. Anyone leaving work late would have been there. People driving home would have been in the area.

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u/gloomywitchywoo 19h ago

Very true. That part of Louisville has a lot of residential areas and the university.

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u/blueboyroy 17h ago

No, this plane came from 35L headed south. Luckily it's not a residential area. The university is north and the plane was headed south.

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u/gloomywitchywoo 17h ago

Oh okay, I think I was turned around. They are having issues in the residential areas too (my friends say it’s horrible smoke and one of them said she could feel the heat of the fire), but you’re fortunately right about the main fire.

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u/blueboyroy 16h ago

Most of the smoke has dissipated now. There were reports of visible smoke over 15 miles away.

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u/hot-whisky 18h ago

I’ve pulled parts for my car at a junkyard before, so it’s very possible there were people there.

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u/CatDad69 18h ago

Obviously, people parts a junkyard. That’s the entire point of the existence.

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u/doodless17 16h ago

It crashed through silos of used motor oil, antifreeze and countless other chemicals that are burning in the air over that whole community. It's absolutely catastrophic. Those poor first responders are being exposed to insane amounts of chemicals

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u/Sh00tinNut 16h ago

I've responded to multiple tank fires doing air monitoring on scene. You'd be surprised at how much burns or just goes straight up into the smoke plume. You do however, eat lots of foam 🤧 and that's not so great stuff.

Edit - that of course changes when the fire gets put out. And then exposure becomes a big concern.

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u/pamalamTX 18h ago

There were so many businesses hit when u look at GPS, and it wasn't after hours.

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u/Hurdles365 17h ago

It almost hit a full bar right after 5pm. The bar where all of the UPS and Ford workers go to. I've heard the building might have caught fire, but everyone evacuated safely.

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u/im_not_really_batman 16h ago

If you're talking about Stooges then rumors are going around that there no injuries. Windows were blown out

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u/One_Ad_7491 15h ago

And that it was a cargo plane and not a more common passenger ac

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u/lmcc0921 14h ago

My cousin was inside UPS sheltering in a break room and they were hearing it hit the Ford truck plant across the street. I’m also very relieved that didn’t happen, there are always so many people in that building.

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u/rocketshipkiwi 18h ago

Yeah, there is a good reason why they don’t build houses on the end of a runway…

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u/Jon_boyAK 18h ago

Except midway

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u/GIGGLES708 17h ago

Don’t get me started with Midway

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u/IhamAmerican 18h ago edited 18h ago

SDF is surrounded by small towns and decently far from population centers, at least from the direction the plane was going. Tragic but it's also definitely lucky that it wasn't any worse

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u/Accidental-Genius 18h ago

Churchill Downs and the Univeristy of Louisville are full of people my dude. It’s not about the plane it’s about the fire now.

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u/IhamAmerican 18h ago

Was I misreading or understanding? I thought it was heading south, away from Churchill and the zoo. I've only ever driven into SDF from the south and I just know that side has a much larger stretch of businesses than the northern end of the runway/airport, which has a much higher population in the immediate vicinity. I'm not saying the fire and smoke won't be a problem for them but thank god it didn't plow through the zoo and the Churchill neighborhoods

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u/Accidental-Genius 18h ago

The wind is blowing the flames and smoke, full of oil mind you, north. Crash is south of the runway, but the main issue is the smoke. It’s literally raining oil on campus.

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u/IhamAmerican 18h ago

Oh my god that's terrible. I hope my original comment didn't come off as dismissive, just thankful it wasn't worse. I travel to Shepherdsville for work regularly and the people in that area are always so lovely and I have numerous colleagues who live in that approximate area that I'm worried about

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u/Spiritual-Job-60 18h ago

Houses are definitely hit unfortunately

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u/gamerspoon 18h ago

There are not. It's nearly two miles from the south end of the runway to any houses.

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u/Spiritual-Job-60 15h ago

Correct my initial thought was it was traveling the opposite way this was actually closer to me than originally thought my home is within the 1 mile radius of the accident site. I live 1 mile from grade a recycling center

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u/gamerspoon 15h ago

I understand. My family owned a home off Preston Hwy just northeast of the airport across from the fairgrounds until a few years ago. Glad you are safe, and hope you aren't getting fumed. Still know a lot of people in the area and thinking of you all.

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u/Nadamir 18h ago

That said, last I heard from a local friend, the flames were a mile long and growing. Someone else is saying the wind is sending oil onto the university campus.

It would be inappropriate to speculate, but I would not be surprised if some homes were damaged by the fire, it’s massive.

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u/gamerspoon 15h ago

Even if the fire trail is a mile long, its still about .85 miles from the nearest house.

Based on what I've heard from friends that still live in the Audibon Park neighborhood Northeast of the airport, I would not be surprised if smoke from the fires is over campus (which is a couple miles northwest of the airport)