Copyright nytimes
The UPS air cargo headquarters in Louisville, Ky., where a plane crash on Tuesday killed at least nine people, is one of the world’s biggest automated package sorting facilities and the hub of the shipping company’s global air network. The site, known as UPS Worldport, covers 5.2 million square feet at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. Every day, it handles more than 300 flights and processes about two million packages for the health care, tech and retail industries, according to UPS, which is based in Atlanta. More than 400,000 packages are sorted each hour. UPS said late Tuesday that it had halted package sorting operations at Worldport, and that the crash, which ignited a large fire in a cluster of buildings near the airport, could cause delays for airborne and international deliveries. “Contingency plans are in place to help ensure that shipments arrive at their final destinations as quickly as conditions permit,” UPS said. In an update on Wednesday morning, UPS said that sorting for its Second Day Air shipping service at Worldport had been canceled for the day.
