UPS plane crash impacts NAILE

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A tragic airplane crash at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport had repercussions for some dairy cattle exhibitors at the North American International Livestock Exposition.

At approximately 5:20 p.m., Nov. 4, UPS Airlines Flight 2976, a commercial cargo flight bound for Honolulu, Hawaii, crashed after suffering an engine failure while taking off. With an engine on fire, the plane lifted off before crashing into two nearby businesses — Kentucky Petroleum Recycling Inc. and Grade A Auto Parts and Recycling. The fire spread to both businesses.

In a press conference, J. Todd Inman of the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane was carrying over 38,000 gallons of fuel when it crashed. The massive fire, compounded by the petroleum products on-site at the businesses that were hit, spanned nearly a half mile, Inman said. 

Louisville Fire Department Chief Brian O’Neill said that while no hazardous material other than jet fuel was onboard, the sheer volume of fuel involved in the crash site made for a very dangerous situation.

Fourteen people, including three on board the aircraft, died, while others remain hospitalized from injuries.

With a huge plume of thick, black smoke visible for miles, a shelter-in-place order was put in place, for fear of additional explosions along with deteriorating air quality, extending to a 5-mile radius of the crash site. The shelter-in-place order was eventually lifted in the early morning hours Nov. 5.

The NAILE is held at the Kentucky Exposition Center, located across Interstate 65 from the airport. The complex was included in the shelter-in-place order. The Tuesday of NAILE is traditionally a high-volume entrance day for several species of livestock, including dairy cattle that travel from across the U.S. to compete on the green shavings of Freedom Hall.

The Aves family — Kevin, Julie and daughter, Stephanie Aves-Schroeder — were in the process of checking their health papers with the Kentucky state veterinarian when the crash occurred. The Aveses milk 40 cows at ST-YLE Holsteins near Belmont, Wisconsin, and brought three Red & White Holsteins to exhibit in Kentucky.

“We heard the first explosion and then you just kept hearing little explosions,” Julie Aves said. “The initial explosion was a huge boom, but the rest weren’t super loud where we were. I’ll bet they didn’t hear them here in the barns. We didn’t know what it was at first, because you didn’t see the smoke right away.”

Once the black smoke started forming, the Aveses realized something terrible had happened at the airport.

“The smell was awful,” Aves said. “Debris was falling around us, almost like it was raining — just huge pieces of debris.”

The Aveses were able to complete the necessary paperwork at health check-in before heading to the barn.

“We pulled into the barn to unload, like normal,” Aves said. “Then everyone’s phones started beeping with the emergency alert thing for the shelter-in-place. Everyone stopped and wondered what was going on. They started closing doors and we couldn’t even take our truck and trailer out after we finished unloading. They were making people come in off the wash racks and they made everyone from the tent outside come inside.”

The Aves family considered themselves lucky to have been able to get their animals through the vet check and into the barns without issue. Exhibitors who arrived after the shelter-in-place order went into effect were not so fortunate. When the order was put in place, the Kentucky state veterinarian closed the health check-in.

Kevin Krejci and Lisa Demmer arrived at the fairgrounds with nine cattle about 10 minutes after the crash occurred. Krejci and Demmer operate Discovery Genetics in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, where they care for their 35-cow herd of Jerseys. Their crew had arrived earlier to prepare their exhibit for the arrival of their animals.

“We pulled into the parking lot for the health check and found they weren’t letting people in or checking anything in,” Demmer said. “We didn’t know what exactly was going on, so after about 10 minutes, I went into the office and asked. They told me they wouldn’t be checking any papers until the shelter-in-place was lifted.”

Understanding what had happened, Demmer and Krejci realized they were looking at hours before the health check-in would be reopened. With a trailer load of cows that had just traveled from northwest Wisconsin, the pair became concerned.

“We were the second or third trailer in line, but there were lots of people starting to line up behind us,” Demmer said. “I told them we had cows that had been on the trailer for 13 hours, and we needed to get them off and milked. They told me they felt bad, but we should have planned better. I actually laughed when they said that — I don’t think anyone could have planned to have a plane crash across the road just as they were arriving.”

Demmer placed a call to the dairy cattle superintendent’s staff for assistance.

“Roger Sparrow told us to just come over to the barns and he’d take care of getting us in and take care of our health papers,” Demmer said. “We were told to just get the cows and anything we absolutely needed off as quickly as we could, because people above the superintendents were trying to shut the entire facility.”

With most of their tack having arrived earlier in the day, Demmer said their crew made quick work of unloading.

“Our cows ended up being on the trailer about an extra hour,” Demmer said. “We were really grateful that the superintendents were so accommodating, and as soon as they realized what was happening outside, they stepped in to supersede the issue.”

Demmer said NAILE staff was able to keep one door in their area open for people to work to get their animals unloaded.

“It could have been a whole lot worse for us if our show superintendents hadn’t figured out how to get everyone in,” Demmer said. “In the end, it was a bump for us, but it was manageable, compared to the big picture.”