UPS Flight 2976 Response

UPS Flight 2976 Response; Louisville, Kentucky 

On November 4, 2025, UPS Cargo Flight 2976 came down after takeoff from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. The airplane was headed for Honolulu with approximately 38,000 gallons of fuel but no hazardous material cargo on board.

The airplane impacted an industrial area south of the airport that includes an oil recycling business with 29 above-ground storage tanks. 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.  

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the accident.  

EPA Response

To protect human health and the environment, EPA is responding under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). On November 5, 2025, EPA integrated into Unified Command, mobilizing On-Scene Coordinators (OSCs) from Atlanta and Indianapolis, as well as Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) contractors.  

EPA is working closely with state and local agencies, along with UPS, to clean up oil released to nearby streams that flow into the Salt and Ohio Rivers.  

November 13, 2025 update:

EPA Region 4 concluded its role in the UPS Flight 2976 response. The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (KDEP) will remain onsite as part of the Unified Command, with EPA standing by to assist if requested.

Since the incident occurred on Nov. 4, crews recovered 626,819 gallons of oil-water mix and contained oil coverage to approximately the first half mile of the impacted creek, with only a light sheen beyond that. Surface-water sampling began Nov. 8 and continues daily along drainage channels leading to the Salt River.

November 10, 2025 update:

EPA and its contractors continue to assess surface water impacted by spilled oil daily starting at Salt River and moving upstream. To date, crews have recovered more than 286,000 gallons of oil-water mix. Notably, oil was originally present in about a 4.5-mile stretch, and this has been reduced to a sheen in about three miles with pooled oil present in the first half-mile closest to the incident site. EPA, KDEP and the Metropolitan Sewer District continue to work with UPS contractors to recover pooled oil. 

Remediation Efforts to Date

• The Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection (KYDEP) integrated with Unified Command to conduct air monitoring with chemical sensors around a 1-mile radius. Results showed only slight detections of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) near the accident site. 
• KYDEP will collect water samples and perform on-site analysis with mobile laboratory equipment. EPA START contractors will be available to support sampling efforts.
• UPS retained an environmental response contractor who installed containment boom along with skimmers in the Northern Ditch and Southern Ditch drainage systems. Decontamination stations were established per EPA and KYDEP direction to clean response vehicles traveling through oil-impacted areas of the exclusion zone. EPA is overseeing all work performed by the contractors.  
• A staging area for recovered waste was established at a UPS facility nearby using mobile frac tanks for storage. At least 17 tanks have been mobilized. 
• EPA is assessing the surface water path from the accident site through contaminated areas where recovery is ongoing, downstream to the Salt River to identify any impacted areas and access points.   
• EPA and KYDEP are working with UPS to develop work plans for containment, recovery, removal and disposal of oil and oiled debris. 
• EPA OSCs confirmed that several large, above-ground storage tanks at GFL Environmental, the impacted oil recycling business, broke open and fell over. The facility remains closed while NTSB investigates.