Louisville shop owner recounts UPS plane crashing, trapping employees on property

A Louisville business owner recounted his harrowing experience Tuesday, as a UPS cargo plane’s fiery crash next door to his business left him and other workers trapped on the property for two hours.

Sabit Aliyev opened Kentucky Truck Parts and Services in October, which works on semis less than half a mile from the south edge of the runway of Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport.

At approximately 5:15 p.m., a massive cargo plane departing for Hawaii crashed just past the runway, with its 220,000 pounds of jet fuel bursting into flames and hitting several businesses, including ones with large oil tanks that also exploded. As of noon on Wednesday, there have been nine confirmed deaths from the crash.

One of the businesses hit directly was the property next door to Aliyev’s business.

“It was like a really loud explosion and flames all over,” Aliyev said. “The heat was so bad, you can feel it from a distance.”

Aliyev says he and workers were trapped behind the shop and tall fences of neighboring properties, amid the flames and billowing black smoke, unable to leave the property for two hours.

He took several videos of the aftermath of the crash, and shared surveillance footage that showed the moment the plane crashed into flames at the neighboring property.

Eventually, Aliyev got the attention of police officers, who used bolt cutters to cut open the fence and allow them to escape the crash scene.

“I waved at him with my phone, with the flashlight, and some of them was able to come out,” Aliyev said. “And I told him to bring a bolt cutter. They got the bolt cutters. They opened up the fence, and that's how we left.”

Aliyev says the neighboring business that was hit worked on engine parts, and he hopes that no one there was killed in the crash.

“I saw these guys every day,” he said.

Aliyev said officers have told them they might be able to return to the business on Thursday, so workers can retrieve their cars, wallets and possessions they left there amid the chaos of the crash, but is unsure when they would be able to reopen.