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Staff at Louisville enterprise close to UPS airplane crash recall “explosion after explosion,” melted garments and chaos


When Georgie Dow heard an explosion on the auto elements recycling enterprise the place she works in Louisville, Kentucky, she had no concept a UPS plane had simply crashed exterior

Dow, the chief monetary officer of Grade A Auto Components positioned simply south of the Louisville Worldwide Airport runway the place UPS Flight 2976 was departing on a flight to Hawaii, recalled the chaos and feeling the hearth as she went exterior Tuesday and noticed black plumes of smoke surrounding their enterprise. 

“It was explosion after explosion after explosion, so that you simply did not know when it was going to cease,” Dow informed CBS Information on Wednesday, the day after the crash that killed at the very least 12 folks. “It is chaos, you do not know what is going on to occur subsequent. What is the subsequent factor? What is going on to explode? It is scary.”

“I heard folks yelling. The place are these folks? Naming them. Does anyone know,” she stated, and recalled seeing melted clothes of staff. “It was so sizzling … You took a step again as a result of it was like warmth in your face. There was no going to assist.”

A map shows the path taken by a UPS plane before it crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 4, 2025.

A map exhibits the trail taken by a UPS airplane earlier than it crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 4, 2025.

CBS Information; flight path from Flightradar24


The UPS airplane carrying as much as 20,000 packages and 38,000 gallons of gas was reaching 200 mph when it crashed shortly after takeoff. Movies present the left wing of the MD-11 plane on fireplace, and the airplane was tilting to the left earlier than exploding right into a path of flames. The airplane’s left engine was later seen mendacity on the tarmac, as investigators with the Nationwide Transportation Security Board work to find out what went incorrect. 

NTSB board member J. Todd Inman on Wednesday confirmed that the airplane’s left engine appeared to have separated from the airplane. He stated investigators have additionally recognized the airplane’s black bins, which suffered some fireplace injury however specialists “will have the ability to get readout of relevant information” as soon as the bins arrive on the NTSB’s Washington, D.C., laboratory.

The remainder of the plane slammed into Sean Garber’s scrap metallic recycling firm and different close by companies, together with a petroleum recycling firm that was “hit fairly instantly,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear stated. 

Aerial footage shows the aftermath of a plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 4, 2025.

Aerial footage exhibits the aftermath of a airplane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 4, 2025.

WLKY-TV


Dow, who was “severely distraught” following the explosion, instantly video-called him, Garber stated, and he needed to know that his son, who usually works within the scrap yard, was secure. Joey Garber was with Dow on the time of the crash, however three of their staff are lacking, Sean Garber stated. 

One of many surviving staff needed to soar between bales of metallic as warmth came to visit on prime of him, Garber and Dow recalled. The employee noticed one in every of their prospects whose garments had been utterly burned off, and he picked him up and took him to security, Garber stated.

Cellphone footage shot by Garber’s son exhibits the aftermath of the fiery crash. Flames and thick smoke consumed an space almost half a mile lengthy. Dozens of individuals had been injured, officers stated, and there are believed to be at the very least 14 folks lacking as of Wednesday night time.

screenshot-2025-11-05-at-5-56-31-pm.png

Flames and thick smoke consumed the realm south of the Louisville Worldwide Airport after a UPS airplane crashed into companies on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.

CBS Information


Garber stated he hasn’t been in a position to determine who’s lacking as a result of there isn’t any energy to the corporate system, including that he is working with investigators to see what they will determine.

When requested about how she’s feeling within the aftermath of the tragedy, Dow stated, “I take into consideration my household. I take into consideration my youngsters.”

“You consider what was the final second I had with this individual. Would which were the final second that they’ll bear in mind? I take into consideration how I wish to act going ahead … I may have died yesterday,” she stated.

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