Each day, tens of thousands of flights fly in and out of American airports, transporting passengers to and from their destinations. Additionally, thousands of cargo flights transporting shipments from point A to point B fly each day, too, carrying every commodity you can imagine. Modern air travel is a miracle, and it is remarkably safe with very few airplane accidents each year. Even more rare are cargo plane disasters.
This week, though, air freight turned tragic as a UPS cargo plane crashed at UPS’s Louisville, Kentucky hub. At least 13 have died, and others have been injured in one of the most-prominent cargo plane disasters in recent history.
The plane crash
Earlier this week, a UPS cargo plane that was departing from Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport lost its left engine upon takeoff. UPS Flight 2976 crashed around 5:15 PM on Tuesday, November 4th. The aircraft in question was a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo plane. It was en route to Honolulu, Hawaii.
Video was seen of the cargo flight taking off with flames shooting out of it, before the plane hit several trees, power lines, and buildings and crashed with a loud explosion. There were three crew members onboard the flight who passed away, with the rest of the deaths likely being people on the ground. Dozens of injuries were quickly transported to the hospital.
In a statement, Nando Cesarone, UPS Executive Vice President, U.S. & UPS Airlines, mourned the loss of the three crew members on board the flight:
“Words can’t express the sorrow we feel over the heartbreaking Flight 2976 accident. It’s with great sorrow that we share the names of the UPS pilots on board UPS Flight 2976. Captain Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt, and International Relief Officer Captain Dana Diamond were operating the flight.”
All of us at MoreThanShipping.com express our deepest condolences for those lost in this tragedy.
How the crash is affecting the supply chain
Understandably, thousands of customers worldwide are wondering what the status of their UPS shipments are. If customers are shipping via UPS, there have been delays for shipments going in and out of the Louisville, Kentucky shipping hub. As UPS’s main hub, any disruption there is likely to affect air freight shipments passing through.
UPS has reassured customers that there are contingency measures in place to deal with aircraft accidents such as this one. First, UPS announced that its operations resumed at its Louisville, Kentucky hub. It noted that shipments made via its UPS Next Day Air® Early and UPS Worldwide Express Plus® services would be extended to an 11:59 pm end-of-day delivery commitment this week. All U.S.-bound shipments would see delivery commitments extended by 90 minutes.
Customers who shipped with UPS this week will see their shipments excluded by UPS’s long-standing money-back guarantee, as the carrier cannot commit to faster shipping times understandably at this time.
There is no exact timeline for when the shipping delays with UPS will end, but these delays are likely to ease over the next few business days and into next week as operations are fully restored.
What does the crash mean for this holiday season’s shipments?
As mentioned, the delays are likely to ease next week. However, there will be lingering disruptions to UPS’s Louisville, Kentucky operation for the next several weeks at least. Analysts who follow UPS believe it is likely that most disruptions will be cleared up by the holiday season and believe that normal operations are likely to resume by then.
