The family of a man who was fatally injured when a cargo aircraft plowed into an industrial area outside Louisville, Kentucky, last year is suing several companies they say are responsible for his death, including UPS and Boeing.
A complaint filed earlier this week in Jefferson Circuit Court in Kentucky seeks compensation for relatives of Matthew Sweets, a 37-year-old electrician in training and father of two. Sweets was inside Grade-A Auto Parts, a parts and scrap metal recycling business, on Nov. 4, 2025, when wreckage from a UPS-operated McDonnell Douglas MD-11 hit the building. He suffered third-degree burns over most of his body and died two days later at University of Louisville Hospital.
Attorneys representing Sweets’ family said his death is directly attributable to the actions of UPS, Boeing, GE, and VT San Antonio Aerospace.
Boeing manufactured the last of the MD-11s after acquiring McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and assumed responsibility for the fleet’s maintenance and continued airworthiness; GE designed and manufactured the three CF6 engines installed on the accident aircraft, registered as N259UP. VT San Antonio Aerospace, of Texas, performed maintenance, inspection, and repair work on the airplane prior to the crash.
All four companies have been targeted in other lawsuits connected to the accident. Each has declined to comment while the cases are ongoing.
The most recent complaint alleges that Boeing did not do enough to address known problems with the MD-11’s engine pylon assembly. The NTSB has linked the crash of N259UP to the failure of the aircraft’s left pylon, which caused the left engine to detach from the wing shortly after takeoff.
Both Boeing and UPS were aware of earlier issues with the pylon’s bearing race assembly but did not report them to the FAA, the attorneys wrote. Boeing was also faulted for failing to reclassify the bearing race assembly in a manner that would have increased the frequency of inspections.
GE and VT San Antonio are accused of breaching their duty of care by failing to identify or address the risk of a structural failure in the engine pylon.
“The defendants knew that MD-11s were compromised,” the lawsuit reads. “They knew, and they flew them anyway.”
The crash of UPS Flight 2976 killed all three crew members and 12 people on the ground, including Sweets. The aircraft was carrying approximately 38,000 gallons of jet fuel for the flight from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport to Honolulu, and when it crashed the fuel ignited in a massive explosion. Nearby tanks of lubricating oil, hydraulic oil, transmission fluid, and diesel fuel also went up in flames, resulting in a fire that took over a day to contain.
The global MD-11 fleet was temporarily grounded until Boeing developed and implemented a repair protocol. FedEx’s MD-11s began to reenter service in May. UPS has permanently retired the type.
Lawyers representing Sweets’ family did not attach a dollar amount to their claims but said they will seek compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to attorney fees.
