Nov. 5 (UPI) — The crash of a UPS plane in Louisville, Ky., has disrupted the shipper’s air cargo headquarters, delaying some deliveries.
UPS Worldport halted processing of packages on Tuesday night after the crash.
The first flights resumed about 24 hours after the crash. CNN reported 10 flights took off within 30 minutes just before 5 p.m. CST.
The Louisville site serves as UPS’ main processing location in the United States. Planes arrive from throughout the nation. The packages are sorted and then they go on other planes to their destinations.
The air cargo operations are also connected to the ground network.
On a typical day, more than 300 UPS flights depart from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport with about 2 million packages.
They are processed at the 5.2 million-square-foot facility, according to UPS.
Each hour, more than 400,000 packages are sorted with 20,000 workers at the site.
A spokesperson told The New York Times that the company’s goal is to be back to normal Thursday morning.
On Wednesday morning, the carrier said its Second Day Air shipping service was canceled for the day.
Later Wednesday, UPS said delivery commitments were pushed back.
The money-back guarantee “is suspended for all packages either shipped from or delivered to the United States until further notice,” UPS said.
UPS said contingency plans are in place “to help ensure that shipments arrive at their final destinations as quickly as conditions permit.” The plans weren’t explained.
The company has regional hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia and Rockford, Ill. In past disruptions, including bad weather, flights were rerouted to other facilities, the Lexington Herald Tribune reported.
“UPS is committed to the safety of our employees, our customers and the communities we serve,” the carrier said. “This is particularly true in Louisville, home to our airline and thousands of UPSers. Everyone in our company is deeply saddened by this horrible aircraft accident and our airline’s first duty is to recovery, aid and victim support.”
The U.S. Post Office and Amazon use UPS for some of their shipments.
The disruption occurred ahead of the busy holiday shipping season.
The other main carrier, FedEx, has a hub in Memphis, Tenn., with 484,000 packages handled each other. Last October, the company unveiled a new automated sorting facility that spans 1.3 million square feet, including handling bulky, non-conveyable shipments.
