Video showing smoke after UPS plane crash at Louisville Airport
Louisville Metro Police reported injuries after a UPS plane crashed at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Nov. 4.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Just as city residents were finishing up work and starting to think about dinner and how to spend their Tuesday, they saw something they still couldn’t believe.
A UPS cargo plane flew out of the sky and crashed into numerous stores on the ground, causing a huge explosion. At least seven people died, including all three people on the plane.
SJ Matthews, a nursing student at the University of Louisville, was eating dinner at a nearby restaurant around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, when she went outside with her food and “saw a big cloud of dust.”
“You’d think the world was going to end,” the 21-year-old told the Louisville Courier-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. “I was just in shock, but then I found out that the plane had crashed and exploded, and my heart ached for the people on the plane.”
Damon Fortner, a long-haul truck driver for UPS, told USA TODAY that he witnessed the plane crash.
He was driving near the airport to pick up a large amount of luggage when he saw a plane fly over the road nearby. “That’s a terrible low,” he said he thought.
Seconds later, it exploded just 100 yards from where he parked the pickup. He watched as the plane destroyed utility poles and wires, leaving a trail of fire.
“It exploded. And it went on for a long time. All you could hear was things exploding and black smoke everywhere,” he said. “I could feel the heat.”
All he could think about, he said, was the poor people on the plane. “It brings tears to my eyes.”
Elizabeth Owens first noticed smoke from the plane crash around 5:30 p.m. and initially thought it was storm clouds. It then reached her neighborhood and surrounded her house.
“You could see smoke coming up from the trees pretty fast, and then it spread out and continued to burn for over an hour,” Owens told the Courier-Journal.
She said her family is used to seeing planes fly overhead, but never expected something like this to happen so close.
“Planes from UPS fly over my house all the time,” Owens said. “It was kind of scary because it was so close. It reminds me of a fear I didn’t feel very often before, because I’ve never been this close to something so important.”
She spent Tuesday night at the shelter with her husband and 11-year-old son.
At least four people were killed and 11 injured in the crash, but the number could rise as the investigation progresses, officials said at a news conference.
Louisville Metro Councilmember Betsy Rouhe said at a news conference that the disaster is touching everyone in the city.
“This is a UPS town. My cousin is a UPS pilot, my tennis partner is a UPS pilot, and my office intern works nights at UPS to pay for college,” Ruhe said. “We all know people who work at UPS, and they’re all texting their friends and family, trying to make sure everyone’s safe. Sadly, some of those messages are probably going to go unanswered.”
Contributed by: Olivia Evans, Stephanie Kuzidim, Lillian Metzmeyer, Kilian Barrer, Maggie Mendersky, Louisville Courier-Journal
