(Washington) At least nine people died in the accident of a cargo plane which crashed Tuesday shortly after takeoff from Louisville, in the east-central United States, the governor of Kentucky announced Wednesday.
“Kentucky, more heartbreaking news coming to us from Louisville. The number of victims now stands at at least nine, and could rise further. Right now, these families need prayers, love and support,” state Governor Andy Beshear wrote on X.
The accident also left at least 11 injured. The state’s governor will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. local time (Eastern).
UPS Flight 2976, which was scheduled to fly to Hawaii, “crashed around 5:15 p.m. local time” (Eastern time) on Tuesday, according to the US aviation regulator, the FAA. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-11.
The plane had “three crew members on board,” said the carrier UPS, whose airline division headquarters is located in Louisville, in a statement.
The aircraft would have hit “quite directly” an oil recycling facility, the governor said.
An amateur video shared by local channel WLKY shows the plane’s left engine on fire as the plane skims the ground while trying to take off from the runway, before visibly exploding further away, causing a large plume of black smoke.
The plane ended its journey nearly 5 kilometers from the airport, according to police.
PHOTO JON CHERRY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Smoke rises from the crash site of a UPS cargo plane at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport on November 4, 2025.
Aerial images from local television also showed, shortly after the crash, a large blaze stretching several hundred meters long in an area of hangars and parking lots, with the flashing lights of rescue teams nearby.
Flights, canceled Tuesday evening, have been reinstated at Louisville’s Mohamed Ali International Airport, the city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, announced Wednesday morning on X.
UPS announced Wednesday via a press release that it was suspending all on-site parcel sorting operations for the second consecutive day.
Louisville serves as the primary U.S. air hub for UPS, according to a company fact sheet.
Budget paralysis
PHOTO JON CHERRY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A plume of smoke from a UPS cargo plane crash is visible at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport, November 4, 2025
Investigators from the US Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB) are due to arrive on site on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s accident comes at a time when the consequences of the budgetary paralysis, due to a disagreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, are being particularly felt in the field of air transport.
For several weeks, there have been shortages of air traffic controllers – who have been working since 1er October without being paid – leading to delays and cancellations of flights across the country.
If the budgetary paralysis continues beyond this week, American airspace could even be partially closed, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Tuesday.
UPS Airlines, the airline division of the American courier and package delivery group, was operating a fleet of around 500 cargo planes at the beginning of September, including 27 MD-11s, the aircraft involved in Tuesday’s accident.
The last major air accident in the United States occurred on January 29 near Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington, when a military helicopter collided with an airliner about to land, killing 67 people in total.
