Death toll from UPS cargo plane crash in Louisville rises to 15

More than seven weeks after man was seriously injured the fiery crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, he died, officials said Thursday, raising the death toll of the incident to 15 people.

The victim was identified by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg as Alain Rodriguez Colina.

Colina “suffered serious injuries at the time of the accident and passed away earlier this Christmas Day,” Greenberg wrote in a social media post to X Thursday afternoon.

On November 4, Hawaii-bound UPS Flight 2976 crashed moments after takeoff from Louisville International Airport, where UPS has its global aviation hub.

The plane had barely taken off when it went down to a commercial area near the airport, crashing into several businesses. All three pilots on board the plane were killed, along with 12 people on the ground, including Colina. Nearly two dozen people were injured.

The plane was carrying up to 20,000 packages and 38,000 gallons of fuel.

In its preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane reached an altitude of only 30 feet, clearing the runway fence, before crashing. Photos and videos also showed the left engine of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F detaching from the wing and falling on takeoff. The NTSB said there was evidence cracks on the left wing engine mount.

The debris field from the crash stretched for a half-mile, NTSB member Todd Inman told reporters the day after the crash.

Inman also said the cockpit voice recorder – one of the plane’s two black boxes that was recovered from the plane – recorded a persistent bell this echoed in the cockpit for about 25 seconds as the plane crashed.

It may take up to two years for the NTSB, the lead investigating agency into the crash, to release its final report.