Sean Garber had just boarded a plane in Jacksonville, Florida, when the call came in from his CFO at Grade A Auto Parts and Recycling in Louisville. She was crying, screaming, rushing a flurry of explanations through the phone as she tried to describe the scene before her to Garber, owner and CEO of Grade A.

An earthquake, a power outage, and the scrap metal office exploding. None of it made sense. When she turned the camera to FaceTime, Garber still couldn’t understand. A rising black cloud of smoke, flames everywhere, the sound of explosions coming through the phone’s tinny speakers.

“It wasn’t logical to even understand,” Garber said. “The images I was seeing—it would have to be a military bomb that created that.” But it wasn’t.

Just minutes before, UPS Flight 2976 had crashed while departing Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on its way to Honolulu. The plane fell shortly after takeoff, hitting a petroleum recycling center and carving a path of destruction through an industrial zone near the airport, killing at least 13 people, including a young child, and injuring several others.

Three of Grade A’s employees are still unaccounted for as agencies work to search for and identify victims. Since his return to Louisville, Garber has been with his employees and the families of those still missing, saying many are still looking for answers.

“They want to bring closure,” Garber said. “They want to know have they found them? And if not, where are they?”

“With knowing that there’s this many unidentified bodies, it’s just weighing on them heavily,” Garber continued. “But I do know that the authorities are working diligently to figure it out.”

Garber said he hopes that results from DNA sampling tests will come back “any hour or any day now” and that families can receive the closure they’re seeking.

Garber was also proud of his employees and customers inside the business for their actions amid the chaos of the explosion. Someone threw a female employee out a window to save her from the flames once it was clear the exits were blocked. Another rescued a customer who had burns over 95% of his body, pulling him to safety, Garber said.

He recounted a story told by two managers: one saw the fireball and tackled the other to safety but panicked as the exits were blocked, only to be pulled to safety by the coworker he had just tackled.

“One person saved a life and then the person paid that back and helped and dragged him out through the fire and saved his life,” Garber said. “It’s indescribable.”

Although his focus is on his employees and their families at this time, seeing 20 years of his business and life in rubble was devastating not only for Garber but for those who depend on Grade A Auto Parts.

“To see it completely destroyed and unable to function going forward at this particular time is heartbreaking,” Garber said.

On Nov. 7, firms Whiteford Taylor & Preston and Peterson Law announced they would represent “several Kentucky families of the injured and deceased including Grade A Recycling, and its employees for damages sustained” during the crash, according to a release from the firms.

“It will take a long time to rebuild the lives and businesses impacted by the crash,” Garber said, asking the community to continue to support and show their love to those affected.

“It’s not just my company,” Garber said. “The whole Grade Lane—there’s multiple companies shut down, and they have employees too. So we as a community need to figure out how we can get everybody back to where they once were.”

Those interested in donating to Grade A Auto employees can visit [gofund.me/eca6a0b34](https://gofund.me/eca6a0b34).

For more information, reach reporter Keely Doll at kdoll@courierjournal.com or follow her on X at [@keely_doll](https://x.com/keely_doll).
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/heartbreaking-louisville-business-destroyed-employees-100651589.html