Supervisor Adam Bowman was loading metal onto a truck at a scrapyard just south of the Louisville, Kentuc
ky, airport when he heard what he first thought was a transformer explosion and quickly realized was more horrific.
“I turned around and I see over the fence just a huge cloud of black
smoke and just a fireball that was indescribable,” Bowman said. “I’m thinking this is a plane coming down.”
And it was: A UPS cargo plane had crashed as it tried to take off, sparking a devastating ripple effect that hit Gra
de A Auto Parts & Recycling and caused blasts at nearby Kentucky Petroleum Recycling.
Bowman said he initially didn’t know whether to run or take cover but chose the latter, diving between giant alum
inum bales and curling up as tight as he could as explosions and fires erupted without warning.
The horrors were just starting for him, his co-workers and custom
ers who had gone to turn scrap metal into cash at Grade A, a sprawling 30-acre facility.
Back on his feet and scrambling for survival, Bowman heard som
eone cry for help. Through black smoke he spotted a man unable to flee, so badly burned his clothes were scorched off.
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“I told him, ‘Get on my back. We’re going to get up front. We’re going to get you help,'” Bowman told The Associated Press.
Chaos at the Scrapyard
On the other side of the scrapyard, Joey Garber had been reviewing emails in his office at Grade A when the power
flickered off, the building shook and he heard a series of explosions.
The plane had crashed about 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 4, after its left wing caught fire and an engine fell off as it was depa
rting for Honolulu from UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub in Louisville. The National Transportati
on Safety Board is investigating the crash, which was captured in dramatic video.
Garber said he ran out the door and saw the flames and black smoke. After that, it was chaos as people struggled to find a path to safety.
Garber, 30, chief operating officer and a son of the Grade A owner, said he saw two employees holding onto
each other, somehow crawli
ng out of a fire. He spotted another coworker and shouted for her to run toward him. Then another explosion rocked the scrapyard.
“The heat that came off that explosion was so hot that we all stopped moving,” he told the AP. “I remember looking
at my boots thinking to myself: ‘You’ve got to move your feet again. You can’t stay here. You’ve got to go.’ ”
Burned Man Rescued
Outside, once he thought the risk of flying debris had diminished, Bowman rose to a hellish scene.
“Everything was on fire,” he said.
He said he ran toward a building but reversed course when another explosion erupted nearby. He called his wife
and parents to let them know he was OK. When his dad asked what h
ad happened, Bowman recalls replying: “I’m pretty sure a plane went down and I think everybody’s gone.”
Soon after, he heard the plea for help from the burned man.
“All I can think is this guy’s got a strength and will that he’s got to have some people he loves he’s trying to get to,” Bowman said.
Bowman, 44, said he carried the man piggyback, trying to reassure him, and contacted a coworker who steered throu
gh the chaos in his pickup truck. They loaded the man into the truck and
drove until they found emergency workers for help.
Bowman asked for the man’s name and learned he was Matthew Sweets, 37.
Sweets, an electrician and father of two, would die days later, one of the 14 people killed in the crash.