Kentucky National Guard firefighter says training kicked in at deadly UPS plane crash scene

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Days after a UPS cargo plane crashed just south of Louisville’s airport, a Kentucky Air National Guard firefighter is sharing what it was like to be among the first on the scene.

Assistant Chief Kyle Miller with the 123rd Airlift Wing Fire Department said he and his crew from Fire Truck 65 were already preparing to roll when the emergency call came in.

“We were already making our way to the apparatus at the time when the alert three came in,” Miller said. “Once we exited the bays, we could see the plume of smoke.”

That “alert three” confirmed the worst — a plane crash just off Grade Lane near Fern Valley Road.

Miller said the fire and smoke were unlike anything he’d ever seen in his 24-year career.

“It was heavy flames and heavy black smoke, I'd say 100 to 200 feet in the air,” he said. “We were right there at the recycling center, and there was heavy black smoke and flames coming up in the sky.”

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo plane, loaded with 38,000 gallons of jet fuel, burst into flames after an engine failure during takeoff from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. The crash killed all three crew members on board and 10 people on the ground.

When Miller and his team arrived, they immediately began laying down foam — the only way to suppress burning jet fuel.

“At that point, we know the aircraft is loaded with a lot of fuel,” Miller said. “So just putting our foam blanket on it will help tremendously in suppressing those vapors.”

Working side-by-side with airport and Louisville-area fire crews, Miller’s team spent more than six hours fighting the flames and protecting nearby tanks filled with oil.

“Training just really kicked in,” he said. “You have a position, you have a job, and whatever you’re told to do, you do it.”

Despite the chaos, Miller said his crew and the other first responders worked as one team — drawing on experience and trust built over years of training.

“Through Air Force training, through real life experiences, through minor aircraft crashes — I’ve never experienced anything with this much fuel or this giant of an aircraft,” Miller said.

“There was a little bit of fear,” he said. “But my training kicked in.”

The Kentucky Air National Guard said its firefighters and members of the 41st Civil Support Team remain on standby to assist local, state and federal officials as the investigation and cleanup continue.