Louisville's World Porch is the headquarters for U.P.S.

Airlines and the main flight training center.

Our Kelsey Starks sat down with a spokesperson for the Independent Pilots Association, the group that represents all U.P.S.

pilots.

Brian, God is with the Independent Pilots Association.

Thank you so much for being here.

And again, our thoughts are with your U.P.S.

family right now.

Explain what it is the IPA is and what and what you all do here in Louisville.

Well, one, thank you for having me.

So the Independent Pilots Association is the collective bargaining union unit or union for the pilots of United Parcel Service.

We have 3500 members and they live all around the country.

But they fly for UPS primarily out of four domiciles.

With Louisville being the biggest, represented about half of our pilot group.

Now, I know you can't talk specifics about this particular crash, but what can you tell us about this point in the investigation or what what you all are hoping to learn from the investigation, so we can tell you, is we're at the very beginning, as as the governor said at his press conference about it 24 hours ago, were moved from the rescue stage to the recovery stage.

And as the NTSB press conference occurred yesterday, the IPA was made a party to the investigation.

So as happened in 2013 with UPS flight 1354 in Birmingham, our crew members, our members of our union will actually go on to those working groups with the National Transportation Safety Board and, you know, help to help to do this investigation.

And unfortunately, this is not the first deadly plane crash for U.P.S., but it is the first to happen here at home in Louisville, where you all are.

What what has that been like?

It's different.

Our first crash, was in Dubai and so very far away.

Other side of the world.

Tragic loss of two crew members.

Same thing in Birmingham, 2013.

Tragic loss of, two crew members.

But this one's at home, and it really hits home because of that.

And like I said, in the last crashes, we lost the cruise again.

Tragic.

But, we are on lose now.

Nine known, civilians who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and with still 16 people unaccounted for.

This is I mean, this is, like I said, tragedy for Louisville and tragedy for the IPA and U.P.S.. Yeah.

It has.

I know a lot of your pilots are, highly trained.

Many of them are, military or ex-military.

What?

Tell us a little bit about the training that goes into all of all of these pilots.

Sure.

And so it's interesting about our pilot group for the most part.

This isn't your first job in aviation.

When you're hired by UPS.

You've been in the military for 20 years.

You've been at other airlines for 20 years.

You generally come here in your mid 40s.

So these are very experienced pilots when they come into the door.

And then beyond that they're well trained pilots.

So no matter what fleet.

747 757767 MD 11 no matter what fleet, these are well-trained, highly trained and highly experienced pilots.

You mentioned to you about, the investigation and how we're at the very beginning.

And I know, you said also, a lot of people are looking at the horrific video and pictures and there's a lot of speculation.

Right.

And you've learned a few things from being in this position a while about speculation.

Yes.

We don't speculate.

But again, having unfortunately gone through this in 2010 and 2013, what you find is, is when the NTSB investigation is allowed to take its course and allowed to reveal its reveal what happened to the airplane, to the engines.

You know, what was the experience of the flight crew 72 hours before, you know, the crash?

What was the weather?

All sorts of other factors.

You know, the picture really begins to come together.

Like for us in 2010, we learned that, you know, the cause was lithium ion batteries.

And because of that, working with the company and a safety task force, we were able to, you know, get full face oxygen masks.

We were able to get a system called Ivus, which allows pilots to see in a smoke filled con cockpit.

We were allowed to get containers that generally can contain them with him battery fire for two hours.

So hopefully the crew can find a place to land and get down and other changes.

What we learned from the 2013 flight in Birmingham was that fatigue was a contributing factor, and that's something that we've been aggressively trying to address with not only the company, but the federal government and the FAA.

So best case here, you're hoping that you do learn something.

We will we will learn something from this investigation.

Yeah.

Talk a little bit about the IPA and the support that you all provide for it, for the families affected by this and the UPS family in general.

You know, people who, weren't there are still very much impacted by a situation like this.

Well, unfortunately, there were a lot of UPS employees that were present when this happened.

Was early in the evening, five ish in the afternoon, very active ramp, meaning planes were taxiing and planes were taxiing out.

Plans were loading up.

First officers were making their walkaround inspection of aircrafts.

Plans were lining up to take off.

And then all of a sudden you have this horrific accident takeoff.

So.

And that in addition to all the teamster employees who were working on the ramp at the time, there were a lot of people there.

There was a lot of first person impact in addition to what went on downrange.

As for the IPA family, we do a great job of taking care of our, our members, while we fly out of four domiciles Louisville, Anchorage, and one in California and one in Florida.

You know, half of all those people are fly out of, Louisville, Kentucky.

So we have a very good group that reaches out to, you know, the surviving spouse, the family members, you know, not only for the initial charge to, you know, inform them of what has unfortunately happened, but, you know, making sure that we follow up with them and then providing resources to our other members of the pilot group in generally in a pilot to pilot or spouse or spouse way.

Again, like a family.

Yeah.

It is so much like a family.

And I know the whole Louisville community, feels, a part of that.

What can the community do right now to, to help?

I think more than anything else, be patient.

I mean, we're still within the first 48 hours since the crash.

These are hectic times.

These are a lot of, you know, a lot of speculation, a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of people who are unfortunately still missing.

Just be patient.

I know that, Teamsters Local 89 is holding a candlelight vigil tonight.

You know, it's those those celebrations in solidarity for me to watch the pilot union as we go through this and as we continue, once again, down this unfortunate path.

All right.

Thank you so much for your time and for being here.

Thank you.

Councilor.

It.

And that vigil is underway right now at the Teamsters Union Hall on Taylor Boulevard in Louisville.