On 4 November 2025, a major air accident shook the US city of Louisville, Kentucky, when an Ups cargo aircraft crashed just moments after taking off from Muhammad Ali International Airport. The plane, an MD-11F operating flight Ups 2976 to Honolulu, Hawaii, took off from the company’s large Worldport hub, which handles over two million parcels daily. At around 5:30 p.m. local time, video footage showed the aircraft in flames during take-off, with the left engine on fire seconds before it lost altitude and exploded on impact in a massive fireball.
According to Flightradar24 data, the MD-11F (registration N259UP) reached a maximum altitude of only 175 feet (about 53 metres) and a ground speed of 186 knots (344 km/h) before crashing. The last transmissions indicated an altitude virtually at ground level. Eyewitnesses reported seeing flames or sparks coming from the left engine even before the plane lifted off. Television footage from local station WLKY showed the aircraft taking off with one wing ablaze, followed by a huge explosion upon impact. The plane went down in an industrial area just beyond the end of the runway, hitting several buildings, including Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts.
Louisville Metro Police declared the scene “active with fire and debris”, urging residents to stay away. A shelter-in-place order was initially issued for a five-mile radius around the airport and later extended to all areas north of the airport up to the Ohio River, including downtown Louisville. The order was prompted by the thick black smoke billowing from the blaze and the risk of secondary explosions from the aircraft’s fuel load.
The airport was immediately closed, with all arrivals and departures suspended until 7 a.m. the following morning. Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill stated that the aircraft was carrying around 143,790 litres of jet fuel, equivalent to about 100 tonnes of kerosene required for the 8.5-hour transpacific flight to Hawaii. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg described the fuel load as “an extreme cause for concern in many different ways.”
There were three crew members on board: a captain, a first officer and a relief pilot. Their fate remains unconfirmed, though Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said during a press conference: “We do not know, at this point, the status of the crew. Looking at that video, I think we are all very, very concerned for them.” Official sources reported at least three dead and eleven injured, though it was not specified whether they were on board or on the ground. There are fears for workers at the two businesses struck by the crash, which narrowly missed a nearby Ford plant.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately launched investigations, with the NTSB leading the official inquiry and sending a team to the site. Preliminary indications suggest a problem with the left engine, which caught fire during the take-off roll. Aerial photographs showed that the engine cowling was found west of the runway after hitting several lights, while the engine itself was destroyed beside the runway. The NTSB said a preliminary report could be released within ten days.
The accident aircraft was built in 1991. Initially delivered to Thai Airways International as a passenger jet, it was converted to freighter configuration in 2006 and began service with Ups the same year. The company currently operates 26 MD-11Fs, with another six stored. Cirium data show that the aircraft had flown from Louisville to Baltimore earlier that day before returning to Louisville to depart for Honolulu.
Ups’s Worldport hub is located within Louisville Airport and covers 483,000 square metres, employing over 12,000 people and supporting around 380 daily flights—nearly half of Ups’s US operations. The crash immediately affected company logistics, forcing several flight diversions. It is expected that the accident could disrupt Ups delivery services, impacting major clients such as Amazon, Walmart and the US Postal Service.
The incident occurred at a critical time for US civil aviation, as many government services have been disrupted by budget issues, affecting air traffic control amid a chronic staffing shortage. It is also the second fatal aviation accident in the US in 2025, following the January collision near Washington’s Ronald Reagan Airport between an American Eagle passenger jet and a military Black Hawk helicopter, which killed 67 people.
The MD-11 type has a documented history of challenging handling characteristics during take-off and landing, though it is not yet clear whether this played a role in the Louisville crash. Since entering service, the model has been involved in fifty accidents, including eleven hull losses resulting in 244 fatalities. Among the most serious were Swissair Flight 111 in 1998 (229 fatalities), several FedEx runway overruns and rollovers, and the Ups Flight 61 incident in 2016 at Seoul-Incheon, where an MD-11F overran the runway and suffered a nose gear collapse during a rejected take-off.
Photo: Wikipedia - Pawel Kierzkowski
