Louisville recycling worker describes moment UPS cargo plane crashed nearby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – New video and witness accounts are shedding light on the moments after the deadly UPS cargo plane crash in Louisville earlier this week.

Rob Sanders, an employee at Grade A Recycling who lives on-site in his RV, says he was inside just minutes before the crash. When he stepped outside, he was met with a massive fireball only feet away.

“I thought it was the end of the world, honestly,” said Sanders. “I thought we were all dead. Losing employees, you know, customers. Either way, you know, it’s like losing actual family.”

Sanders says he lost several close friends in the tragedy.

Aerial footage captured after the crash shows the scale of destruction, with debris stretching between half a mile and a mile — from the end of the runway to Grade Lane.