Christmas is usually a time for celebration and light, but for the city of Louisville, this year’s holiday brought a heavy cloud of grief. Mayor Craig Greenberg shared some truly tough news on Thursday evening, confirming that the death toll from the horrific UPS Flight 2976 crash has risen once again. Alain Rodriguez Colina, who had been fighting for his life since that fiery November afternoon, passed away on Christmas Day.
Alain wasn’t on the plane when it went down. He was simply at work at Grade A Recycling, a local business near the airport, when the world literally fell from the sky. He suffered severe injuries during the impact and the massive fireball that followed. For nearly two months, he held on, but the mayor confirmed that he finally succumbed to those injuries earlier this morning. Mayor Greenberg asked the community to keep Alain’s family in their thoughts, saying, “May Alain’s memory be a blessing.”
The crash itself is something people in Louisville won’t soon forget. Back on November 4th, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was attempting to take off for a long flight to Honolulu. It was loaded down with 38,000 gallons of fuel—fuel that turned into a massive inferno when the left engine caught fire and actually broke off the wing. Investigators say the jet only made it about 30 feet into the air before it came crashing down into an industrial area just south of the airport.
It’s hard to wrap your head around the scale of the tragedy. Alain is now the 15th person to lose their life because of this accident. The victims include the three brave crew members on board—Captain Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt, and Captain Dana Diamond—as well as twelve people who were just going about their day on the ground. Among the fallen were a grandfather and his three-year-old granddaughter, a detail that has sat heavy on the hearts of everyone in the city.
Governor Andy Beshear also stepped in today to offer some comfort to a community that is clearly hurting. He urged everyone to pray for the families, not just for today, but for the long road ahead. He wanted to make sure they know they aren’t carrying this weight alone and that they are deeply loved by their neighbors and their state. It’s a reminder of how quickly life can change and how much we need each other when things go wrong.
As for the investigation, things are still moving forward. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that “fatigue cracks” in the parts holding the engine might have been what caused it to rip away. In the wake of the crash, UPS actually grounded its entire fleet of MD-11s. There are several lawsuits currently working their way through the courts, as families look for answers and accountability for why this happened.
But today, the focus isn’t on the legal battles or the mechanics of the plane. It’s on Alain and the fourteen others who didn’t make it home. Even as the holiday lights twinkle across Louisville, there’s a quiet respect for a man who fought a long, hard battle and for a community that is still trying to heal from a wound that goes very deep
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