On November 4, 2025, flight 2976, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 took off from runway 17R of Muhammed Ali International Airport (SDF) heading to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL). The aircraft crashed moments after liftoff in an industrial area south of the runway, killing the 3 flight crew on board and 12 people on the ground, injuring 22 others. The accident, following an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, was determined to be caused by the left engine and engine pylon breaking off the wing, believed to be the result of metal fatigue. Video analysis also indicates the tail-mounted engine was experiencing malfunctions, most likely caused by debris from the initial detachment being sucked into the engine. The left main landing gear struck the roof of a UPS Supply Chain warehouse. Its left wing hit a stand of fuel tanks at the Kentucky Petroleum Recycling depot, resulting in a fire to erupt and the plane to roll 90 degrees to the left. Finally, the aircraft crashed in a semi-truck parking lot and the scrap yard of Grade A Auto Parts on Grade Lane, leaving an approximately 3,000 foot (900m) debris field south-southeast of the UPS warehouse. This crash is the deadliest plane crash in UPS history, eclipsing two prior accidents (UPS Airlines Flight 6 in 2010 and UPS Airlines Flight 1354 in 2013, each only consisting of 2 deaths in each case).
The victims of the crash are as follows: Capt. Dana Diamond, 62, Capt. Richard Wartenberg, 57, First Officer Lee Truitt, 45, Angela Anderson, 45, Louisnes Fedon, 47, Kimberly Asa, 3 (granddaughter of Louisnes Fedon), Trinadette “Trina” Chavez, 37, Alain Rodriguez Colina, 50, Tony Crain, 65, Carlos Fernandez, 52, John Loucks, 52, John Spray, 45, Matthew Sweets, 37, Megan Washburn, 35, and Ella Petty Whorton, 31, along with the 22 unnamed injured parties.
On November 4, 2026, UPS Worldport held a moment of silence, lasting only a minute, in which operations ceased from 12:00am-12:01am.
The crash of Flight 2976 resulted in the retirement of all MD-11 aircraft in UPS’s fleet. It also resulted in a barrage of lawsuits against UPS, Boeing, General Electric, VT San Antonio, and later ST Engineering, alleging negligence on part of UPS, beginning with Morgan & Morgan, with Clifford Law Offices and Sam Aguiar Injury Lawyers filing similar lawsuits soon after. While at the time of writing, the author is unaware of any updates to safety procedures in the wake of this tragedy, one can only hope that there has been an increase in care taken with safety inspections of aircraft to prevent another tragedy of this scale.