UPS cargo plane crash near Louisville airport kills at least 7, injures 11

A UPS cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky at around 5:15 p.m. local time Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

At least seven people were killed, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on X, adding that the death toll is expected to rise. In an earlier press conference, he also said 11 people were injured in the incident, some of them significantly.

UPS said in a statement that there were three crewmembers on the plane. It was unclear if the fatalities were from the plane or on the ground, and Beshear said the status of the crew was unknown. He added that there was an emergency response area set up for families.

The reason for the crash was not immediately known. The plane was a MD-11F, a type of freight transport aircraft made by aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas, which merged with Boeing in 1997. The plane had hundreds of thousands of pounds of fuel on board to travel all the way to Honolulu, Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said in the press conference.

The Louisville Metro Police Department said on X that it was implementing a shelter-in-place order near the crash site. Several businesses near the area were affected, officials said.

There was no hazardous material on the plane that would create an environmental issue, but the place where it crashed “could create those types of situations,” Beshear said. He said a petroleum recycling business and an an auto parts business are in the area and called it an “all-hands on deck response.”

A large plume of black smoke was visible near the airport, and footage from local TV showed fire and debris in a large radius around the crash site.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced it is sending an investigation team to the incident site Wednesday.

The airport was closed following the incident, and “all arriving and departing flights at SDF are temporarily suspended,” the airport said in a statement on X Tuesday evening.

The airport is home to the UPS Worldport, which the company says is its largest package handling facility in the world.

“We are terribly saddened by the accident tonight in Louisville. Our heartfelt thoughts are with everyone involved. UPS is committed to the safety of our employees, our customers and the communities we serve,” the company said in a statement. “This is particularly true in Louisville, home to our airline and thousands of UPSers.”

Hundreds of UPS flights take off daily from Louisville, according to the company. UPS noted late Tuesday that it has halted package sorting operations at the facility.

“This is a UPS town,” said Louisville city council member Betsy Ruhe.

— CNBC’s Dennis Green contributed to this report.