A Louisville resident and two local business owners have sued UPS, General Electric and Boeing, three days after a UPS cargo plane bound for Honolulu crashed south of Louisville’s airport.
The federal lawsuit alleges the companies were negligent and share responsibility for the Nov. 4 crash, which killed at least 13 people, including a young child, and caused widespread damage across roughly a half-mile area.
Filed as a proposed class action suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, the case seeks to represent everyone within five miles of the airport who was injured, lost property, or suffered emotional or business losses because of the crash.
Before the case can proceed as a class action, a judge who is randomly assigned to the case must decide whether to grant it that status. Federal data show more than 200,000 people live within five miles of the airport.
The named plaintiffs are:
- Shakeara Ware, who, according to the suit, was at home when Flight 2967 crashed and went to the emergency room after smoke and soot filled her lungs.
- Triple D, Inc., an auto repair shop that the suit says was completely destroyed, along with its machinery, customers’ vehicles, and other assets.
- Ensey LLC, which the suit says owns property now “subject to chemical contamination” and has lost much of its value.
“Defendants’ recklessness has upended the lives and livelihoods of plaintiffs and numerous Kentuckians, who live with trauma, fear and uncertainty caused by Defendants’ actions,” the lawsuit states.
According to preliminary findings from the National Transportation Safety Board, UPS Flight 2967, an MD-11 cargo plane, was cleared for takeoff at 5:15 p.m. As it sped down the runway, flames appeared around its left wing. The plane lifted off, clearing the perimeter fence at Muhammad Ali International Airport, but crashed moments later in an industrial area directly south of the airfield.
Airport security cameras captured the left engine breaking off during takeoff, NTSB officials said earlier in the week.
The lawsuit claims the MD-11 aircraft model and its GE CF6 engines have a history of catastrophic failures, citing previous crashes involving both. It also alleges that Boeing was negligent in converting the MD-11 from a passenger jet to a freighter, which UPS later purchased.
The complaint also notes that the plane, built in 1991, had recently undergone extensive maintenance after being grounded for six weeks in San Antonio. A Courier Journal analysis of Federal Aviation Administration records shows the aircraft — part of an aging fleet that UPS and FedEx have been working to replace with newer, more efficient models — had at least five maintenance issues on record, including three in the last two months while it was in San Antonio from Sept. 3 to Oct. 18.
Even so, the plane involved in the Louisville crash did not have an unusually high number of reports this year compared to other aircraft in the UPS fleet, according to the analysis.
The plane flew more than two dozen flights between its downtime in San Antonio and its disastrous Nov. 4 crash, according to records from Flightradar24. Records also indicate the plane stopped for multiple days last month in Ontario, California, where UPS operates another shipping hub.
Triple D is an auto repair and services company with a location on Knopp Avenue, directly adjacent to the petroleum recycling facility impacted in the crash and involved in the resulting fire. David Ensey is listed in Triple D’s state records as president.
The Triple D shop on Knopp Avenue still appeared to be standing after the crash, based on aerial footage shared by the National Transportation Safety Board. The full extent of damage to the property is unclear from the footage, but it shared a property line with the impacted petroleum facility, where a significant amount of petroleum products were stored.
“Approximately 226,000 gallons of used motor oil and 37,000 gallons of oil-water-antifreeze mix were at the oil recycling facility at the time of the incident,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency did not say how much oil spilled, but said “several large, above-ground storage tanks … broke open and fell over.”
Separately, firms Whiteford Taylor & Preston and Peterson Law announced Nov. 7 they would represent “several Kentucky families of the injured and deceased including Grade A Recycling, and its employees for damages sustained” during the crash, according to a release from the firms.
“This was a heartbreaking loss that impacted not only the families involved but also the broader Louisville community,” said Masten Childers III, managing partner of Whiteford’s Kentucky offices, in a statement. “We intend to pursue justice for those whose lives were forever changed that day.”
Grade A runs a recycled auto parts operation on much of the property caught in the wreckage of the plane crash. Aerial footage shared by the NTSB shows some structures on those properties were damaged or completely leveled.
Josh Wood contributed to this report.
Monroe Trombly covers public safety. He can be reached at mtrombly@gannett.com. His X handle is@MonroeTrombly. Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal. Reach him directly atcgiffin@courier-journal.com or on X@byconnorgiffin.
