LOUISVILLE, Ky. — United Parcel Service Flight 2976 crashed almost immediately after takeoff at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport Nov. 4, killing at least 14 people, mostly area workers, injuring many more and destroying or damaging workplaces in the area.
Two days later, Teamsters Local 89, which organizes the workers at the UPS Worldport distribution center at the airport, held a vigil to mark the disaster.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo plane, carrying about 38,000 gallons of fuel for a flight to Hawaii, lost an engine and burst into flame, smashing into businesses in a nearby industrial area where thousands of gallons of motor oil and antifreeze were stored.
Throughout the city people watched in horror as the crash caused a huge fiery explosion that sent smoke and debris into neighborhoods miles from the airport. Local officials ordered a shelter-in-place order for a 5-mile radius around the airport. The crash and fire hit several businesses, including Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts, both of which were destroyed and several workers were killed.
Sabit Aliyev, who was working at Kentucky Truck Parts and Service, told the Louisville Courier Journal the explosion “knocked me off my feet. I was thinking it was my last moments.” He and a co-worker were stuck there for two hours as the fire raged around them until they were rescued.
It took days of searching through the wreckage to find the remains of the 14 who were killed. This includes the three pilots on the plane, workers in the area and a man and his 3-year-old granddaughter.
The industrial area that was destroyed lies between a CSX rail yard and Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant, which lost power and had to cancel two shifts.
Some 300 working people came out to the Teamsters Local 89 hall Nov. 6 to honor those who were killed or injured. Most were workers at the UPS facility at the airport. It’s the largest UPS facility in the world, where more than 12,000 workers process over 22 million packages daily. Local officials and union leaders spoke, including Bob Travis, president of the Independent Pilots Association.
Travis described the solidarity between the pilots’ union and the Teamsters, explaining that in 1997, when the union members at UPS went on strike, the pilots “didn’t turn a wheel for 16 days. And we’ll do it again if necessary.”
This kind of solidarity is what is needed to press the bosses and the government to find out the truth about the cause of the Nov. 4 disaster.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all MD-11 and MD-11F aircraft for inspection. The FAA order said the “left-hand engine and pylon detached from the airplane during takeoff” and this “unsafe condition is likely to exist or develop in other products of the same type design.”
When these planes have been deemed unsuitable for continued passenger service, they are refitted for cargo transport and continue flying, often for decades.
In 2009 a similar crash of a FedEx MD-11 plane killed the two pilots on board.