December 5, 2025 • 10 mins
Jody Meiman, executive director of Louisville Metro Emergency Management Services, updates the cleanup process following the devastating UPS plane crash in Louisville.
Jody & Terry Meiners discuss the various aspects of comforting families of victims, environmental cleanup, first responder readiness, and much more.
Jody & Terry Meiners discuss the various aspects of comforting families of victims, environmental cleanup, first responder readiness, and much more.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a guy don't get it much sleep because he's
always working. He's Jody Myman and he is the executive
director for Louisville Metro Emergency Service. It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Brother, Good to see you too well.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You and I always work together on the Crusade for children.
We have fun and have good time and that's a
great cause. But you've got a very serious job, and
we know we've seen you so much following this ups crash,
just kind of updating the community on the situation. So
let's do that again, just because it's always good to
know the latest on the process of cleanup after an
(00:34):
incredibly disheartening, just gut wrenching disaster like this. Where do
we stand in terms of the access to that area
for people that have business to do there.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, so you know you've heard me say many times
about we've separated into phases. Phase one is you know,
one area don Hudson Boulevard south to the atter Loop
that's been open so customers are free to come to
the businesses. The businesses are obviously open, not necessarily to
the general public, but it is the local access. Phase two.
We opened that up last week to businesses and their employees.
(01:09):
So that's Gray Lane north of Don Hudson to Criten
and Drive on the west side, and a few businesses
on the east side. So they're free to come and go,
but you know, there's an accountability thing, so they have
to provide us employee names or who's going to be
coming in and out, and they got to go through
a checkpoint so that they can get to the places
that they need. And then Phase two, Phase three is
is not Hawkins Able and Melton Avenue and that's you
(01:32):
know that's directly affected by the by the crash itself.
So we did offer businesses to be able to come
into work third shift starting last month or this last
Monday night, so they can come in from eleven pm
to seven am. They're not interacting or interfering with any
of the cleanup process. They are there is some stipulations.
Oh there's there's electric that's not onto every building, there's
(01:53):
gas that's not onto every building. So currently lg and
e's they they've done a great job. They're actually contacting
the businesses to meet them so that they can get
those those utilities hooked up.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And here some people are able to run generators and
so forth and keep themselves operating in some capacities. Yeah,
so good for them, And I know it's a long
it's gonna be a long process to put all this
back together. Is the mantle the dashboard video that we
saw the best in terms of the crispus visual of
(02:27):
what we saw as this was taking place, because the
engine's already gone, the plane is airborne, and then we
know that the crashes right after.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You I mean, it does show it, you know, coming
across Grade Lane, and it does it does kind of
tell that story, but you know it it travels further
through there. And you know, one of the one of
the issues getting businesses in to certain to the certain
areas now is you know, there's still a lot of
evidence around, and there's still a contractor in that's getting
the pieces of the plane up and they're getting into
the bulk of that right now. So they've got more
(02:56):
employees that have come in and you know, they've identified
it's going to slow down a little bit just because
they're getting into a thicker part of where that's located.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
How do you guys know that you have all the
human DNA.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know, it's just just the searches that we did.
I mean in and out. I mean there's things that
are marked. You know, there was a lot of vehicles
on site because of the because of just the type
of site it was, you know, with it being a
metal contractor and Junkyard, and it just everything was searched.
You know, those searches do continue. I mean there's still
the possibility, but you know there's the searches do continue
(03:29):
to you know, for every little piece and even even
something that may have belonged to somebody, I mean even
the contractors that are cleaning up or looking for those two. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah. The whole story obviously is so heartbreaking for these
families that have to live with the aftermath.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Of all this.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean customers who are in a store, I mean
just horrific timing and that sort of thing. And I
was talking with one of the owners of one of
those businesses affected, and he's just he's destroyed too. That
it's just that people had to suffer, and some of
his employees were killed.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Right, Yeah, and we go ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I was just going to say that that's that his
life has changed forever too, in that he doesn't know
how he can put back in for these families what
he can do you know, I mean it's because there's
any emotional component here that you can't heal.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, absolutely, and you got to take care you know,
that's a whole aspect you've got to take care of.
And that's why we set the Community Resource Center up
so that these businesses and these employers and these families
can go to this this this CRC and actually get
the help that they may need. And it's been you know,
it's worked very fine. We've had a lot of people
taking advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
The NTSB obviously controls these crash site investigations. We've got
the preliminary report. We'll probably get a final report in
a year or so or whatever. But for you in
emergency services, Jody, your job and your teams that come
from wherever they come from, they go to a place. Now,
in this case, an airport is a federal property. The
(04:59):
city is beyond the fence. Obviously the crash went beyond
the fence, but the federal property is part of the
investigative investigative process. Are you limited in that you can't
go on the federal property or when an emergency happens,
it doesn't matter who runs what right.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, we're that overall coordinating agency that brings everybody together
to develop that unified command and you've got to do
what you've got to do to get control of the situation.
So you know, and while the situation is still under
control one, it's an active investigation still, but it's also
an environmental cleanup issue. So all these areas and all
these businesses and these properties are being gone through to
(05:36):
make sure that there's not any pieces of aircraft or
there's not any environmental cleanup that still has to take
place before we can fully release it back to the
business owners.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
What about groundwater and what I mean? Those tanks were
filled with all kinds of things. Obviously we know there's
thirty eight thousand gallons of fuel on board for a
full load for a long flight like that. So where
does all that go? How is it extracted?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
What happens thing about that night was we were able
to work in a parallel fashion with at first MSD
and our local health department to make sure that you know,
they were out as the firefighting operations and the search
and rescue operations were going on. They were working parallel
in those operations to make sure they were booming ditches.
They were taking care of areas where you know, we
(06:21):
didn't get any of that. You know, you talk about
thousands of gallons of jet fuel, you talk about thousands
of gallons of oil, you talk about you know, the
water that's put on the fire and the runoff. And
they did a phenomenal job, you know, to keep that
limited to the areas that it was that it was
limited to. I mean they just even the contract the
outside contractor said how good of a job they did
keeping that locally, you know, where they could keep that
(06:43):
so that the bigger contractors could come in and help
with that and and you know, take all that up.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Is this waste going to be an ongoing problem for
years to come?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We don't think so. I mean that's you know, it's
obviously still being investigated. But you know, like I said,
between between our local contractors, the State Environmental Protection Agency MSD,
the Health Department, the the outside contractors that have come in,
I mean, they're they're they're they've been able to suck
a lot of UH contaminants up and they're treating it
(07:14):
on site. They brought a treatment center on site and
they're treating it to get all the oil out of
it or any contaminants out of it and then to
be released to msd UH, you know, potentially in the future.
So I mean, like I said, we've got a treatment
center there on site that they brought in to set.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Up, and there's an ongoing schedule of practicing for the
sorts of things. And it timed out pretty fortuitous ly,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah. Three weeks, three weeks almost to the day, we
were at the airport doing a live scenario that UH
that the airport Public Safety Team and the UH the
Airport authority had put on and we exercised their emergency
Operations center. We exercised that on the in the middle
of the airfield with the live fire, and you know,
we had victims that were set up and we were
able to take things that we learned from that and
(07:58):
implement them during the actual crash.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
But there are still pieces of the aircraft from this
actual emergency that are still there and then that'll all
be extracted and I guess positioned somewhere to be part
of the investigator.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
There's a company that's that's contracted on site and they've
done this before. And you talk about a methodical search
I mean, they've got rakes out there, you know, in
the ground, and they're picking up the smallest piece that
they think is an aircraft and they're they're sorting it
and categorizing it and putting it in bags.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And then obviously possessions of humans that that are found
as well.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, we haven't. We haven't had that. If by some
odd chance we would find something in the corner's office
would be brought in. But you know, it's more so
you know, looking for also things that belong to people
so that we can get those back to those families.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and I know this is a minor thing, but
the cargo that's on board was all scheduled to go
somewhere and so I guess all that was categorized so
someone knows they can replenish whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, they thought was on that and that's part of
getting it as well. So we you know, we've got
the you know, the the postmaster and their staff that's
been in as well, so that they can put that stuff,
you know, into place and keep it safe so that
nobody's personal information may get out as well.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Okay, And what we learned is that you guys are
ready just you never know what can happen, But you'll
learn from that.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I just don't know that anybody can be ready for that.
I mean, everybody did such a good job. I mean
it's you know, it's kind of been my coin phrase
that you can always do things better. But it doesn't
mean we did anything wrong. And you know, everybody came
together and they just did a phenomenal job. Because to
my knowledge, nobody has ever seen anything like that.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No and a city this size being able to manage
that the way that was done so effectively.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Too, between the city, the state, our federal partners. You know,
everybody just did a good job.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
We don't have equipment like Chicago has, but we have equipment.
As a matter of fact, I heard there's a new
piece that we avenue.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
We do have a new and tomorrow it'll be in
the parade, the Christmas parade. You'll get to see it.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I just happened to be the narrator of that. I'm
looking forward to seeing that tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Jody Miman appreciates you. Ye love to the family. Your
whole family has been so great for the crusade over
all these years. Your mom, your dad, and you folks
have just been wonderful and your kids, you guys train
your family as well. Appreciate you, but appreciate it all right.
That's Jody Miman, executive director Louisville Metro Emergency Services, a
little update on our ups aftermath back in a minute
(10:21):
on news radio eight forty whas
Here's a guy don't get it much sleep because he's
always working. He's Jody Myman and he is the executive
director for Louisville Metro Emergency Service. It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Brother, Good to see you too well.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You and I always work together on the Crusade for children.
We have fun and have good time and that's a
great cause. But you've got a very serious job, and
we know we've seen you so much following this ups crash,
just kind of updating the community on the situation. So
let's do that again, just because it's always good to
know the latest on the process of cleanup after an
(00:34):
incredibly disheartening, just gut wrenching disaster like this. Where do
we stand in terms of the access to that area
for people that have business to do there.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, so you know you've heard me say many times
about we've separated into phases. Phase one is you know,
one area don Hudson Boulevard south to the atter Loop
that's been open so customers are free to come to
the businesses. The businesses are obviously open, not necessarily to
the general public, but it is the local access. Phase two.
We opened that up last week to businesses and their employees.
(01:09):
So that's Gray Lane north of Don Hudson to Criten
and Drive on the west side, and a few businesses
on the east side. So they're free to come and go,
but you know, there's an accountability thing, so they have
to provide us employee names or who's going to be
coming in and out, and they got to go through
a checkpoint so that they can get to the places
that they need. And then Phase two, Phase three is
is not Hawkins Able and Melton Avenue and that's you
(01:32):
know that's directly affected by the by the crash itself.
So we did offer businesses to be able to come
into work third shift starting last month or this last
Monday night, so they can come in from eleven pm
to seven am. They're not interacting or interfering with any
of the cleanup process. They are there is some stipulations.
Oh there's there's electric that's not onto every building, there's
(01:53):
gas that's not onto every building. So currently lg and
e's they they've done a great job. They're actually contacting
the businesses to meet them so that they can get
those those utilities hooked up.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And here some people are able to run generators and
so forth and keep themselves operating in some capacities. Yeah,
so good for them, And I know it's a long
it's gonna be a long process to put all this
back together. Is the mantle the dashboard video that we
saw the best in terms of the crispus visual of
(02:27):
what we saw as this was taking place, because the
engine's already gone, the plane is airborne, and then we
know that the crashes right after.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You I mean, it does show it, you know, coming
across Grade Lane, and it does it does kind of
tell that story, but you know it it travels further
through there. And you know, one of the one of
the issues getting businesses in to certain to the certain
areas now is you know, there's still a lot of
evidence around, and there's still a contractor in that's getting
the pieces of the plane up and they're getting into
the bulk of that right now. So they've got more
(02:56):
employees that have come in and you know, they've identified
it's going to slow down a little bit just because
they're getting into a thicker part of where that's located.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
How do you guys know that you have all the
human DNA.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know, it's just just the searches that we did.
I mean in and out. I mean there's things that
are marked. You know, there was a lot of vehicles
on site because of the because of just the type
of site it was, you know, with it being a
metal contractor and Junkyard, and it just everything was searched.
You know, those searches do continue. I mean there's still
the possibility, but you know there's the searches do continue
(03:29):
to you know, for every little piece and even even
something that may have belonged to somebody, I mean even
the contractors that are cleaning up or looking for those two. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah. The whole story obviously is so heartbreaking for these
families that have to live with the aftermath.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Of all this.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean customers who are in a store, I mean
just horrific timing and that sort of thing. And I
was talking with one of the owners of one of
those businesses affected, and he's just he's destroyed too. That
it's just that people had to suffer, and some of
his employees were killed.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Right, Yeah, and we go ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I was just going to say that that's that his
life has changed forever too, in that he doesn't know
how he can put back in for these families what
he can do you know, I mean it's because there's
any emotional component here that you can't heal.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, absolutely, and you got to take care you know,
that's a whole aspect you've got to take care of.
And that's why we set the Community Resource Center up
so that these businesses and these employers and these families
can go to this this this CRC and actually get
the help that they may need. And it's been you know,
it's worked very fine. We've had a lot of people
taking advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
The NTSB obviously controls these crash site investigations. We've got
the preliminary report. We'll probably get a final report in
a year or so or whatever. But for you in
emergency services, Jody, your job and your teams that come
from wherever they come from, they go to a place. Now,
in this case, an airport is a federal property. The
(04:59):
city is beyond the fence. Obviously the crash went beyond
the fence, but the federal property is part of the
investigative investigative process. Are you limited in that you can't
go on the federal property or when an emergency happens,
it doesn't matter who runs what right.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, we're that overall coordinating agency that brings everybody together
to develop that unified command and you've got to do
what you've got to do to get control of the situation.
So you know, and while the situation is still under
control one, it's an active investigation still, but it's also
an environmental cleanup issue. So all these areas and all
these businesses and these properties are being gone through to
(05:36):
make sure that there's not any pieces of aircraft or
there's not any environmental cleanup that still has to take
place before we can fully release it back to the
business owners.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
What about groundwater and what I mean? Those tanks were
filled with all kinds of things. Obviously we know there's
thirty eight thousand gallons of fuel on board for a
full load for a long flight like that. So where
does all that go? How is it extracted?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
What happens thing about that night was we were able
to work in a parallel fashion with at first MSD
and our local health department to make sure that you know,
they were out as the firefighting operations and the search
and rescue operations were going on. They were working parallel
in those operations to make sure they were booming ditches.
They were taking care of areas where you know, we
(06:21):
didn't get any of that. You know, you talk about
thousands of gallons of jet fuel, you talk about thousands
of gallons of oil, you talk about you know, the
water that's put on the fire and the runoff. And
they did a phenomenal job, you know, to keep that
limited to the areas that it was that it was
limited to. I mean they just even the contract the
outside contractor said how good of a job they did
keeping that locally, you know, where they could keep that
(06:43):
so that the bigger contractors could come in and help
with that and and you know, take all that up.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Is this waste going to be an ongoing problem for
years to come?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We don't think so. I mean that's you know, it's
obviously still being investigated. But you know, like I said,
between between our local contractors, the State Environmental Protection Agency MSD,
the Health Department, the the outside contractors that have come in,
I mean, they're they're they're they've been able to suck
a lot of UH contaminants up and they're treating it
(07:14):
on site. They brought a treatment center on site and
they're treating it to get all the oil out of
it or any contaminants out of it and then to
be released to msd UH, you know, potentially in the future.
So I mean, like I said, we've got a treatment
center there on site that they brought in to set.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Up, and there's an ongoing schedule of practicing for the
sorts of things. And it timed out pretty fortuitous ly,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah. Three weeks, three weeks almost to the day, we
were at the airport doing a live scenario that UH
that the airport Public Safety Team and the UH the
Airport authority had put on and we exercised their emergency
Operations center. We exercised that on the in the middle
of the airfield with the live fire, and you know,
we had victims that were set up and we were
able to take things that we learned from that and
(07:58):
implement them during the actual crash.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
But there are still pieces of the aircraft from this
actual emergency that are still there and then that'll all
be extracted and I guess positioned somewhere to be part
of the investigator.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
There's a company that's that's contracted on site and they've
done this before. And you talk about a methodical search
I mean, they've got rakes out there, you know, in
the ground, and they're picking up the smallest piece that
they think is an aircraft and they're they're sorting it
and categorizing it and putting it in bags.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And then obviously possessions of humans that that are found
as well.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, we haven't. We haven't had that. If by some
odd chance we would find something in the corner's office
would be brought in. But you know, it's more so
you know, looking for also things that belong to people
so that we can get those back to those families.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and I know this is a minor thing, but
the cargo that's on board was all scheduled to go
somewhere and so I guess all that was categorized so
someone knows they can replenish whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, they thought was on that and that's part of
getting it as well. So we you know, we've got
the you know, the the postmaster and their staff that's
been in as well, so that they can put that stuff,
you know, into place and keep it safe so that
nobody's personal information may get out as well.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Okay, And what we learned is that you guys are
ready just you never know what can happen, But you'll
learn from that.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I just don't know that anybody can be ready for that.
I mean, everybody did such a good job. I mean
it's you know, it's kind of been my coin phrase
that you can always do things better. But it doesn't
mean we did anything wrong. And you know, everybody came
together and they just did a phenomenal job. Because to
my knowledge, nobody has ever seen anything like that.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No and a city this size being able to manage
that the way that was done so effectively.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Too, between the city, the state, our federal partners. You know,
everybody just did a good job.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
We don't have equipment like Chicago has, but we have equipment.
As a matter of fact, I heard there's a new
piece that we avenue.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
We do have a new and tomorrow it'll be in
the parade, the Christmas parade. You'll get to see it.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I just happened to be the narrator of that. I'm
looking forward to seeing that tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Jody Miman appreciates you. Ye love to the family. Your
whole family has been so great for the crusade over
all these years. Your mom, your dad, and you folks
have just been wonderful and your kids, you guys train
your family as well. Appreciate you, but appreciate it all right.
That's Jody Miman, executive director Louisville Metro Emergency Services, a
little update on our ups aftermath back in a minute
(10:21):
on news radio eight forty whas
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